The Detective and the Author
by WritACampion
Summary: Castle, Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan are thrown into a case that forces Beckett to face her past, watch out for her present, and look into her future.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, ABC does**

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The phone rang in twelfth prescient radiating almost visible sound waves off the empty florescent-lighted hallways. Detective Javier Esposito was seated at his desk with his eyes glued to a case file that he was so close to finishing he could almost taste it. The phone went off again and he reluctantly pulled his tired brown eyes off the hazing letter before him. As he reached out and gripped the cold, black, plastic phone, he let his eyes drop to the bottom right of his computer screen. The little white numbers showed him that it was ten after three. He groaned as he brought the phone to his ear, what he would not do to be sleeping right now. "Esposito," he said as he brought the phone to his ear.

A girl was on the other end of the phone, a younger girl, and she was clearly upset. "_Yes, I, um_," Javier smiled to himself as she stumbled over her words, _She sounds cute_, he thought. "_would like to report a body_."

At her words, Javier sat up straighter in his chair and put all playful thought to the side. "Can you identify the victim?"

"Kinda," the girl said, "She lives in the same building as me and I've seen her before, but I don't know her name. I was on my way home from work and I walk up to the building doors and I see something hanging from a tree…." She said as her voice broke.

Javier nodded his head as if the girl was right in front of him. "Thank you, can you give me an address?"

_Kate Beckett was in the shower. The hot water running over her bare shoulders releasing all the tension from the day. She let out a sigh. The case was finally over. Ben Conrad, who committed three murders all in the name of Detective Nikki Heat, because of a dead dog, killed himself this afternoon, right before the FBI was able to get to him. It was tragic, Kate thought, that it had to end this way, but at least it was over. At least, he was no longer after her. At least she was no longer in danger. At least Nikki didn't have to burn. As she reached over to wash her shoulders she heard her cell phone ring and she tensed up undoing all the good the hot water had just done on her muscles. She closed her eyes and let the water run over her again, deciding to ignore the call. As it went to voicemail she sighed in relief and continued washing. It went off again when she bent down to wash her legs. This better damn well be important, she thought as she turned the water off and peeked her head out of the shower curtain to get a towel. Once in hand she wrapped herself up and went to retrieve her cell phone. A wave of annoyance swept through her as she saw Richard Castle's name on the caller ID. Since she was already out of the shower, making a puddle on her wooden floors, she decided to answer it. "What Castle?" she asked, not trying at all to hide the annoyance in her voice. Why did he always have to interrupt her at the most inopportune times? She wondered her mind traveling to Will for a fleeting second._

_Richard Castle was running, running toward something, and something in the sound of his breathing sounded panicked. "It wasn't Ben Conrad. He's not the killer. The killer's still alive! The killer's still alive!"_

_As Kate heard the words exit out of Castle's mouth she felt a lead drop in her stomach and her eyes grow wide. If Ben wasn't the killer than the real killer could be committing another murder right now, she could get another call any second letting Detective Heat know that she had failed once again. Another call was not what she had heard when Castle finished his sentence though. Just as the thought went through her head, three beeps sounded and then a male automated voice. "Good-bye Nikki, Good-bye Nikki." As she heard the words she looked around horrified for a second then ran as fast as she could pulling the door closed behind her and dove into the bathtub, twisting her ankle, just as the bomb went off. The last thing she heard before the call was cut off was Castle's frantic voice. "Kate!"_

Kate Beckett gasped as sat up in bed drenched in a cold sweat as the light of the explosion still echoed in her memory. It had been months since her apartment had exploded but still every night she relived it. She closed her eyes and let her rapidly beating heart slow and her breathing return to normal just as her phone rang. She grabbed it on the second ring and looked at it. It was Esposito. "Beckett," she said after she hit the talk button and brought it up to her ear.

"_Yo, Beckett, a body dropped on 220 West 100__th__ Street in the city, you in? I'm on my way there now. Apparently it's a suicide._"

"A suicide?" Kate said as she fell back into her pillows and pushed her brunette bangs out of her face.

"_Some chick called it in maybe a half hour ago, there was no one else at the prescient that could take the call, so I did and she actually sounded kind of hot, I wanted to help her out, maybe I'd get something out of it._"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Esposito, it's…" she turned the digital clock, on the bedside table toward her, "three thirty in the morning, can we focus on the victim instead of the witness please," she said and huffed. "Have you called Lanie?"

"_Oh yeah, you kidding, she's already down there, God I hope she's in a silk nightgown, that'd be hot_," he said enunciating the "T" knowing it would drive Beckett crazy, and there was nothing funnier than an angry Kate Beckett.

Kate rolled her eyes. It was far too early to let Esposito get under her skin like this. "Okay, fine, I'll be there in an hour tops."

Kate could hear Esposito sigh playfully on the other end of the phone. "_An hour? What were you doing? Sleeping?_" he said as he chuckled at his own bad joke.

"No, I was playing poker with Charles Manson and Jack the ripper," she said sarcastically. "Just make sure the vic doesn't leave before I get there, okay?"

Javier chuckled on the other end. "_Oh, we're funny this morning! Seriously girl, an hour? You live ten minutes from there_."

Kate rolled her eyes before closing them, dreading what she had to do. "Imnotatmyapartmenttonight," she mumbled through the phone.

Kate heard silence on the other end of the phone, she assumed Esposito was trying to figure out what she had just said. "_Was that Russian? I know that wasn't English or Spanish, and I speak both._"

With another deep sigh of regret and dread Kate spoke again more clearly, "I'm not at my apartment tonight," as the words came out she cringed for she knew Esposito would know exactly where she was and assume what exactly didn't happen.

Again there was silence on the other end of the line, just as Beckett had expected, before, "_NO_ _WAY! YOU'RE WITH CASTLE AREN'T YOU?"_ Esposito responded exuberantly.

"No!" Kate responded defensively and was silent for a moment as she looked around the dark room. Oh, there was no point in lying to him. "Well, technically he's in his own bedroom; I'm in Martha's…"

On the other end, Javier frowned in disappointment, he should have known. Beckett and Castle just weren't that way, not yet anyway. "_Okay…so now, why are you in Martha's bedroom?_"

Kate sighed. He was so noisy! If she had a brother, she figured he would be much like Esposito. "Castle came by my apartment last night to drop off some dinner because Martha had cooked for an army, again, and he realized the air conditioning was broken in my apartment so he insisted that I come spend the night at his place, because Martha was spending the night with her boyfriend anyway."

Javier smiled as he heard Beckett's story. She never sounded like herself when it had something to do with Castle. "_Isn't it a fluke that every time you need a place to stay Martha is conveniently staying with her boyfriend?_"

Kate narrowed her eyes and glared into the darkness as if Esposito was right in front of her face. "Yes, Esposito, it has worked out conveniently."

"_So, um, you have to answer this for me, Castle and his mother, they're close right?_" Javier said smirking as he braked his car for a red light.

Kate frowned. Why was he asking this? He knew the answer. "Yes Esposito they're close what's your point?"

Javier smirked, he knew there was a good chance that he was going to get slapped when Beckett got to the crime scene, but for some things, it was worth it. "_Oh, okay, I kind of figured, I mean you have to be in order to sleep in her bed…_"

Kate pulled in an angry breath through her nose. "Esposito how many times…." She began when she heard a click on the other side indicating that he had hung up the phone to avoid any comeback or argument that she would dish out.

Kate pursed her lips as she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen. It was amazing it survived the explosion as well as her. As she placed the phone in her lap, she closed her eyes and relived the scene that took place after the haunting dream she just had.

_A frantic voice outside her apartment door made Kate Beckett realize she was alive, after a bomb had just exploded in her apartment. A bomb, she thought, the bastard planted an effing bomb in my apartment. _

_"Kate, are you in there?" A bang echoed outside her apartment but she could not bring herself to open her eyes. They burned too badly. Nor could she move. Every muscle in her body was frozen. She could not even breathe. A panic started to rise up in her as a voice she recognized, but could not place, called out. "Kate!" another bang echoed followed closely by a crash. Someone had broken down her front door. Someone was on their way! Maybe she was going to be all right. "Kate?" she heard the worried voice again and tried to open her eyes again. This time her muscles responded, this time her eyes opened. She looked around with her eyes but all she saw was her soot-covered cast iron bathtub. Why couldn't she place whom the voice belonged to? "Kate!" CASTLE! It was Castle. A wave of gratitude overtook her allowing her to take in a deep rigid breath. As the smoky air entered her lungs, it brought along with it, ashes. Many ashes. She coughed once to try to clear her lungs of ashes._

_"Kate?" Castle called out again, questioningly and hoping beyond all hope that she was alive. She knew that._

_She began to cough more to clear her lungs as she pulled her torso off the floor of the tub._

_"Kate," Castle said still worried as he ran into the bathroom ducking under broken and fallen beams. "Kate. You're alive!" he said as he pulled the bathroom door away from the bathtub. As he laid eyes on her back, she could almost feel his eyes widen. "Whoa. And you're naked."_

_"Castle! Turn around," she demanded as she fought to turn herself away from Castle's eyes._

_In the instant that she spoke, he spun around on his heel and looked at the burning doorway. "You know your apartment is on fire. Now might not be the best time for modesty." _

_As Kate finally got into a sitting position, with her back facing Castle, she took in little breaths trying to fill up her deprived lungs with oxygen. "Castle, hand me a towel," she called as she raised her arm up for him to hand it to her._

_"Your towels are on fire."_

_A small sweep of panic washed through Kate as he said this. "Well what about the bathrobe?" she asked turning her head around to see for herself._

_"The…do you have anything to wear that's nonflammable?"Castle asked not trying to be sarcastic or funny as he turned around to look at Kate._

_"Castle!" she said as she turned herself around again and hunched over to hide her body. _

_"Sorry," he whispered as he faced the burning doorway again._

_As she turned around and looked through her broken bathroom window, she realized that Castle was wearing a jacket. That would be big enough to cover her up, at least until someone else could find something more suitable. "Give me your jacket," she said as she lifted her arm up again._

_Without thinking, Castle removed the jacket and held it behind him. "Okay, okay," he said as he turned his head to the side as not to intrude on her privacy again. _

_Even though she saw his head turned she said, "Don't look," as tried to position herself to get into a standing position._

_"I'm not."_

_"Don't look," Kate said as she prepared to stand up in the tub to put the jacket on leaving herself totally exposed if Castle wanted to go against her wishes._

_"I'm no—not looking," he said and chivalry would have it, he kept his eyes averted as he waited for her to help her with it on._

_"Okay," she said as she stood up and waited for Castle to put it over her shoulders._

_"All right?" he asked as she slipped her arms through the sleeves._

_"Yeah," she said as he brought down his arms and she turned around and began to get out of the bathtub. "I dove into the tub just as it blew."_

_"Can you walk?" he asked Kate as he held her arm as she stepped out of the tub and onto the hot burning floor of her apartment._

_"Ugh," she moaned in pain as she put pressure on the ankle she twisted as she jumped into the tub. "Yeah, just…a little banged up," she said as Castle guided her limping body out of the bathroom. As the two were approaching the doorway, he guided her in front of him. "Okay, come on. Nice and easy."_

_"Yeah," she said as she limped out of the bathroom into what used to be her living room. With each step her ankle shot shooting pains up her leg causing her to grunt._

_"Are you in any pain?" Castle asked concerned hearing her grunt._

_Kate let out a big breath as she fought back a smile as she heard the sirens wailing in the background. "Well, not nearly as much as you. It's killing you isn't it?"_

_"What?" he asked concerned._

_"Having to wait this long to tell me," she paused for half a second to try and trick Castle, "how you banged down the door," she said with a satisfied smile._

_"Do you want me to start from the beginning?" he said with a playful smile on his face._

When the memory ended, she sat up in bed for a second and looked around the dark room before flinging her feet out from under the warm covers to the soft carpeting below. She shook her head as she thought what Esposito had accused her of. It was silly, the thought of sleeping with Castle. She had no feelings for the man whatsoever. Unless you count annoyance, annoyance was a feeling. Sure, she flirted with him, but that is only because he started it, and because it was so blatantly obvious he was into her, but that did not mean they were sleeping together. He was only saying that because Castle was gracious enough to open up his home to her every time she was in need.

As she walked over to the light switch to turn it on the large tee-shirt she was wearing swished against the back of her thighs and she paused for a second with her hand hovering on the switch plate. What would it be like to be with Castle? As the thought echoed through her head she felt her eyes grow wide and her face heat up in embarrassment and she quickly flicked the light on and went to find her clothes. Where in the world had that thought come from?

No, her and Castle's flirtatious partnership was as far as their relationship would ever venture, she assured herself as she got dressed. Hadn't they already crossed that line though? He'd ran into a burning building to save her, not knowing if he'd even find her alive. He'd seen her exposed, of course, it was neither of their choice, how was she supposed to know a damn bomb was going to go off while she was in the shower? She'd lived with him for a short period of time while she was looking for another apartment. Now, here she was again, in his house, because her air conditioning was broken. Yes, their relationship was definitely more than a flirty partnership.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC**

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Forty minutes later, when she was finished showering and getting dressed she ventured into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. If she were lucky, Castle or Alexis would have made a pot of iced coffee she could just heat up in the microwave before she had to go. Although, as she stared at the bright fridge all she saw was cold water bottles. She sighed as she grabbed one, this would have to do for now. She would grab a coffee at a gas station on the way over to the crime scene. As she shut the refrigerator door, she leaned up against the counter and stared at the light hanging from the ceiling thinking of the dream once again.

"Well you're certainly up early," Richard Castle said as he moseyed into the kitchen clad in plaid flannel pants and a maroon tee shirt.

The sound of Castle's voice pulled Kate out of the sickening memory that she could not seem to rid herself of. She smirked at him as she took another sip of the cold water as she willed it to wake her up. "Yes, well murder never sleeps, does it?"

Rick frowned at the beautiful homicide detective in front of him. "Murder? Esposito seemed under the impression that it was a suicide."

Kate raised her eyebrows in surprise, did Esposito not trust her enough to bring Castle along for the ride. Sure, she considered leaving him home to sleep, just to spite the boys, but she would never deprive him of a case. Even if it was for a very selfish reason, had she left him at home, he would have found a way to make her feel guilty about it. "You've spoken to Esposito all ready this morning?"

"Oh yeah," Rick said as he opened up one of the cabinets looking for where his mother had stored the coffee the last time she used it. "He seemed to think you would leave without telling me, and let me miss out on a case. Don't know why though, I would have thought we were past that," he said as he turned around and grinned at her.

Kate bit her bottom lip, _if he only knew why Esposito thought she was going to leave him home_, she thought as she observed Castle's crooked grin. He was right, he certainly was ruggedly handsome, even more so when he wasn't speaking. "I wouldn't have left you."

Rick smiled to himself as he turned away from Beckett to open another cabinet. So contrary to what she'd have him believe she didn't mind having him around. "Ah! Found it!" he rejoiced as he pulled out the white and green coffee Tupperware that Alexis had bought him as a divorce-from-Gina present. Surprised by the silence that followed his outburst, Rick turned around to find Beckett stone-faced and silent. "You had the dream again, didn't you?"

Hearing Castle's voice directed at her again pulled her out of her thoughts. She blinked a few times and shook her head. "I'm sorry, what?"

Rick looked at Beckett sorrowfully, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was thinking about the dream she had, had so many times before. "The dream, about your apartment, you had it again last night, didn't you?"

Kate looked at Castle stunned. How was it he knew every time she was thinking back on the incident? Kate blinked and exhaled strongly before she answered. "Every night, how did you know?" she asked Castle's back as he filled up the coffee maker with water.

Rick shrugged. Aside from the fact that he too, had the nightly nightmare of standing out in the street watching his partner's apartment explode with her still inside while there was nothing he could do but call her name out? "Well I heard you wake up and then I heard your phone ring, so I knew it wasn't that," he said as he turned around to face Beckett.

Kate looked down at the floor when she saw Castle turn around; he had heard her wake up? How was that possible, he was across the hall, unless he too was awake he wouldn't have heard her gasp. "You were awake?"

Castle nodded his head as he pushed off from the counter opposite from Beckett that he was leaning up against. "I would have come in and checked on you, but, I didn't want to get shot," he said and dodged a kitchen towel that Beckett chucked at him. he smiled playfully at his partner. "Coffee should be done in a few minutes, if you're making them up-"

"Cream, two sugars?" Kate interrupted as she watched Castle walk down the darkened hallway toward his bedroom.

A smirk made its way across Rick's face as the words came out of Beckett's mouth. He turned around and began to walk backwards. "See, I told you, you were my work wife," he said as he disappeared behind his bedroom door.

Ten minutes had hardly passed before Rick came charging out of his bedroom like a bat out of hell. "All right, ready to go!" he announced as he charged into the kitchen.

Kate, who was now sitting at the kitchen table, looked up from her creamy coffee and frowned at him. "will you try to be quiet? You're going to wake Alexis!"

Rick smirked arrogantly. Alexis was his daughter, not Beckett's, why should she be worrying if she woke up or not. "she's not a child Beckett, she'll go back to sleep."

Kate raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you think I can get a recording of you saying that? Just so I can play it the next time you freak out over Alexis hiring a violin tutor."

Rick glared at Beckett before laughing sarcastically. "Oh you're so funny Beckett."

Kate smiled smugly to herself, it was so much fun getting a chance to drive Castle crazy for a change, rather than getting driven crazy by him. "Coffee's on the island," she said off handedly as she took a sip out of her mug.

Hurriedly Rick pulled open a cabinet, grabbed two to go mugs, and poured his coffee into one and rushed the other one over to Beckett.

"Castle, just sit down and drink your coffee," Kate said shaking her head as she took another sip of coffee before pouring it into the to go cup in front of her.

"No, no time for sitting and drinking, we have to get to the crime scene!" Rick said as he slipped on his shoes, jumped up and began to pull Beckett's wrist like an overeager child waiting to go to a theme park.

"Castle!" Kate snapped as she yanked her wrist out of his grasp. "Try not to get so giddy every time we go to a crime scene, kay?"

Rick looked back at Beckett and smirked. "Just because someone's dead doesn't mean you have to be grumpy."

Kate rolled her eyes. She had heard Castle tell her that multiple times before. "Oh, you want to see grumpy? How about my mood after Montgomery finishing speaking to me because I let you go to a crime scene wearing _that_," she said as she nodded to the flannel pajama pants that he was still sporting.

Rick frowned at Beckett for a minute and was about to ask what was wrong with what he was wearing, when he realized he had never changed into the pants he had pulled out of his closet. He had been standing there babbling like an idiot in his pajama pants. "Really? You would have let me go to a crime scene with my pajama pants on?"

Kate smirked as she shrugged her shoulders. "The boys would have enjoyed it, and I'm sure you would have gotten a whole new fan base," she said as Castle rushed into his bedroom.

"So you do admit that I am good looking?" Rick responded smirking as he hopped out of his bedroom still pulling his pants on.

Kate rolled her eyes and ignored the question, he needed no more help fueling his ego. "So Esposito thinks we're sleeping together again," she said as they walked out of the front door.

Rick frowned at Beckett as they walked the short distance to the elevator. "Really? He didn't say anything to me about it." he was quiet for a second before he added, "You know I was thinking, maybe if we just do it everyone will stop questioning us about it," he said as he hit the down button and they waited for the elevator.

Rick felt Beckett's hazel eyes glaring at him even before he had the chance to turn back around to face her. "Yeah, okay, Castle. how about in your dreams?" she asked as the elevator door opened and the two entered.

Rick smirked he knew there was going to be some future form of payback for what he was about to say but he really didn't care. "Oh that's happened many times," he said and chuckled at the expression on Beckett's face as he pushed the button for the parking garage. "I'm just kidding…well actually I'm not…Why would he think that again?" he asked as he turned around toward Beckett, who was standing with her arms folded over her chest.

"Because he asked me why it was going to take me longer to get to the crime scene so I made the mistake of mentioning that I was spending the night at your place," Kate said as the elevator doors closed.

Rick nodded his head as he leaned against the back wall of the elevator as it began to descend. "Ah, well if it makes you feel any better I know that I'm not sleeping with you, and you know that, and the whole prescient knows that, but they say stuff like that because Esposito and Ryan get a kick out of seeing you get flustered when the subject of us comes up."

"There is no 'us', Castle," Kate said as she looked at him through the dim lights of the elevator.

"Yeah, I know," Rick said and looked up at the numbers of the elevator going down.

Kate looked over at Castle as he responded. Was it just that he was tired or was he truly upset by the words she had just said? Swallowing her pride, she spoke up. "Castle..." she said and waited for him to look at her. "I'm sure, I can do much worse than people saying I'm with someone who is there for me for no matter what I need."

At Beckett's words Rick was taken aback, just like he had been the night when she told him she had gotten used to him pulling her pigtails. He gave her his crooked grin, "Thanks, Kate."

As Rick led the way into the parking garage of his apartment building, he turned toward Beckett. "So what kind of case are we looking at? Theatrical, like hanging someone from the monkey bars in their underwear covered in caramel? Or more traditional, like a pop and drop?"

"Umm, probably something more along the lines of someone laying in a pool of their own blood with their wrists slit, or on the side of the street with their hands wrapped around a knife that's in their chest." Kate replied as they walked through the rows of cars towards her own.

"Wow, that last one was really Romeo and Juliet. Are we going to find a vile of poison at the crime scene as well?"

"No, Castle," Kate said as she shot Castle a look that seemed to let him know his morbid sense of humor was not needed. "It's only a single suicide."

Rick smirked for a second at his own joke before looking down at the ground. "Sorry," he said as he looked up. "Hang on a second, do we normally deal in suicides?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Well, we have to check out the scene anyway, and there is a chance that she did not kill herself, which is why I'm here. Esposito took the call cause he thinks there may be a chance with a girl who called it in if he came to her aid."

Rick snickered to himself. "Smart man, good way to get lai-never mind," he said as Beckett turned her head and glared at him for a brief second.

At Castle's words a wave of intense jealousy reared up inside her so strong it caused to stop in her tracks.

Noticing Beckett's stall Rick looked at her. "Are you alright?" he asked his face now a mask of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said as she shook her head in an attempt to think of an excuse for the stall. "Come on Castle, body's waiting."

Ten minutes later, when Beckett and Castle turned on West 100th they saw the entire street lit up by the lights atop squad cars. Kate pulled alongside the curb a good three hundred feet away from any of the other cars. Rick looked toward her and smirked.

Feeling on eyes on her Kate looked at Castle and the look he was giving her made her jump. "What?"

Rick shook his head. "Nothing, I was just right," he said and kept the satisfied smirk across his currently arrogant face.

Kate looked at him appalled. "Right about what?"

"The walk up," he said as he looked at her again. "I wrote it in Heat Wave on a hunch that you do this, and it looks like I was right. I'm so good sometimes, I amaze myself."

Kate looked at Castle annoyed. She wasn't doing any a walk up. She just didn't like to get too close to the squad cars. "Castle, you've been with me hundreds of times, on hundreds of different cases, have you ever seen me do this before tonight?"

Rick smirked again satisfied. "So you're giving me credit for it? You do the walk up because Nikki Heat does. I'm so touched!" he said with false sincerity as he placed a hand on his chest.

"Just so you know the only reason I have parked this far away is because those squad cars have a tendency to peel out of here, and I'd rather not have my car in the way."

At Beckett's words Rick nodded his head. "So, it wasn't because of my idea in the book?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Come on, Castle. Crime scene," she said as she got out of the car and walked up to a yawning Kevin Ryan who was in his sweat pants. "Morning Ryan."

Kevin turned around to face Beckett and Castle. "Ah, morning, you're here," he said as they began to walk up to the scene. "Vic's a female, early twenties, no I.D., she was found hanging from her neck in this tree by a flight attendant who lives in the building near an hour and a half ago. Esposito is talking to her now."

"Wow," Castle said as they crossed the police tape and looked at the scene. "Guess she didn't get the memo that you were supposed to hang a tire from that and not a body."

Lanie Parrish turned around with a shocked expression on her face. It astounded her how callous Castle could be sometimes. "Castle? What are you doing here? It's five a.m. You're not even paid to be here!"

Kate pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "Esposito invited him. How's it going up there?" she said referring to the two police detectives who were gingerly trying to remove the victim from the tree without causing any further damage.

Lanie shook her head at a loss for words. "I don't know if it's the incompetence of men, the earliness of the hour, or the knot that's preventing them from getting her down but those two have been up there for almost thirty minutes now!" she said aggravated. "I don't know how they expect me to determine a COD if they keep her up there long enough to decompose."

"Cause of death? Do you really need to do an autopsy to find that the girl killed herself? Isn't that obvious to anyone who looks at her?" Rick said as he watched the two investigators finally get the victim down from the tree.

Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head. Hadn't Castle been with her long enough to know this was procedure? "Yes, Castle, it's obvious, but we need to find out what killed her,"

"Like was it her spinal cord snapping or her wind pipe being crushed as a result from hanging from a rope," Lanie said as the investigators got the body down one of them carried her over to a blanket that she had laid out with her equipment on it. "Lay her down here," she said as she bent down next to the blanket.

As the two investigators laid the body down and Lanie moved her hair out of her face to try to get an ID on her, Kate felt her breath catch in her throat. "L-Lanie?"

Hearing the hysteria in Beckett's voice Lanie looked up to see her friends hazel eyes glazed over in fear. "What's wrong Beckett?" she asked frowning.

As Kate continued to stare at the victim's face she couldn't help but be sure of who she was, yes it had been much too long since she had seen her last, but everything about her fit. "Do we have a positive identification yet?"

Lanie shook her head. "No, there's nothing in her pockets, giving any hint to who she is, and our witness doesn't recognize her."

Kate's breathing picked up. No, it couldn't be her. But everything fit, there were too many variables for her not to be her.

"We can get uniforms to start canvassing the area, see if maybe her ID fell out of a pocket when she made the drop," Kevin said as he walked up behind Castle.

"Ooh, nice one!" Rick said as he joined his thumb and finger tips together and them turned upside down so Ryan could tap Castle's hand with his own.

"Enough!" Kate said firmly as she turned around to face the two misbehaving men behind her.

A smile was in place on Rick's face when Beckett turned around. "Oh come on, Beck—what's wrong?" he said when he saw the stony expression that was her usual cover up for emotion.

Kate took a breath before turning back around and looking at the victim again. "A murder-or in this case a suicide- scene is not a place to make crude jokes or humor," she said thickly.

Rick frowned. Something was wrong. He knew it. She never cared before if he and one of the boys cracked jokes at murder scenes, unless of course, the families could hear, but no one was here. Swiftly he walked over to Beckett, grabbed her arm, and led her away from the victim. "Beckett, what's wrong?"

Kate shook her head as she refused to make eye contact with Castle. She didn't want to go telling people her suspicions just to find out that they were wrong, which is what she was hoping for. "Nothing, Castle, don't worry about it."

As Beckett turned to walk away Rick grabbed her arm, once again, and spun her around. When she turned and faced the other direction again, she caught her breath in her throat. Castle's face was not three inches from her own. As she looked up in his eyes a feeling of butterflies erupted in her stomach. Butterflies! She hadn't gotten butterflies since she was in high school. First, that question this morning, and now butterflies? What was wrong with her?

As Rick looked down into Beckett's hazel eyes he fought the urge to complete the distance between the two of them. He couldn't though, and he knew that. With a deep breath, he pulled back away from Beckett's face. "Beckett, you and I have known each other long enough, for me to know, when something strikes a chord in you. Now what is it?"

Kate looked into Castle's eyes and cleared all emotion from her. It was easier to deal with things if she was more detached. She'd do well to remember that next time she found herself face to face with Richard Castle. With a deep breath she said, "I think I know her."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC**

* * *

"Yo, Castle, Beckett," Javier had finished talking to the witness and had joined Lanie and Ryan over by the victim. "We got an ID."

Kate looked back at Castle her hazel eyes wide. "You ready to find out who she is?" Castle asked her as he extended his arm for her to hold.

Looking down at the darkened asphalt under her feet Kate nodded. "Yeah," she said as she turned and headed over to the victim.

"So Esposito wanna tell us who our Jane Doe is?" Castle asked as he came up between Beckett and Ryan.

"Super said her name's Kimberly Holtz, lives in the building, with a roommate, we're trying to get in touch with her."

At Esposito's words Kate pulled in a sharp breath and closed her eyes, they burned from exhaustion. In her mind, she saw Kim playing in the sprinkler as a little girl and their moms sitting in the shade of an umbrella that covered the table while they sipped on iced tea. When the memory ended, she opened her eyes again and walked away without saying anything.

"Beckett," Rick called over his shoulder. When she didn't turn around he walked away from the body and followed her. "Kate," he said as he grasped her arm again and spun her around.

When she faced him again she looked up into his blue eyes. "It was her. I knew it all along. She's twenty-three now. Or she would be if she were still alive. When she was still alive my mother and Marie, Kim's mom, were best friends. Whenever they would go out I would babysit her," Kate made a small sad smile at the memory. "We used to stay up late; watch movies or play games. Then right when we heard their car in the driveway she'd run into bed and pretend like she'd been there for hours." Kate was quiet for a second before she looked up at Castle and spoke again. "I have to be the one to tell her parents."

Rick nodded his head in understanding. "Okay," he said just as Esposito walked over to the pair of them.

When Javier approached the detective and the author, he noticed the expression on Beckett's face and frowned. "Is everything okay over here?"

Quickly before Castle could answer for her Kate nodded her head. "Yeah, everything's fine, what's up Esposito?"

"Oh, well I just spoke with the super and he just got in touch with the roommate and-"

"He knows not to tell her anything, right?" Kate asked with big eyes as she cut Esposito off mid sentence.

Javier nodded his head. "Oh yeah, of course, he told her we were here and needed to speak with her so to come home immediately so she can show us the apartment, thing is she's Jersey so it's gonna take a few hours to get home."

Kate nodded her head. "All right, Esposito, you and Ryan hang out here and wait for Kimm-Kimberly's roommate. Castle and I are going to Staten Island."

Javier frowned at the female detective in front of him. "Staten Island? What are you going down there for?"

"Someone has to notify her next of kin, and since neither of you have the emotional capacity…"

The whole while Kate Beckett was speaking Javier was frowning at her. How did she know that her next of kin lived in Staten Island? Did she know the victim? It appeared so. "How do you know her Beckett?"

Sometime later Kate Beckett pulled up in front of a ranch style house in Staten Island. It was a quaint little house with a white picket fence and inpatients in the flowerbeds. Kate sighed for a brief second before she put the car in park. "Castle," she said as she turned to the right. "I want you to come with me."

Rick Castle looked at Beckett surprised. She almost never allowed him to come with her, and never had she said she wanted him there, especially when she was delivering the news to a family. "Are you sure?" he asked skeptical.

Kate nodded her head. "I need someone there who isn't close to this case; who isn't close to this family."

Rick looked at Beckett somberly. "Then why didn't you just let another one of the detectives—

"Because I owe this to them, this woman was my mother's best friend, I can't just let some stranger tell her that her daughter killed herself," Kate paused and shook her head. "No, it has to be me."

"Kate…"

Kate looked out the windshield and placed her hand on the door handle. "You know, truth be told, if this wasn't a suicide Montgomery probably wouldn't allow me to work the case."

Rick didn't take his eyes off Beckett. "Isn't it better when you're close to a case though? Doesn't that make you more passionate?"

Kate wanted to smile at his question but couldn't muster the strength to do so. "Passionate, yes. But it also makes you emotionally involved, and when you're emotions get in the way you stop using your head."

"So, I'm just there to make sure you use your head?"

Kate nodded her head and pulled the lever to open her door. "Come on, Castle, let's go," she said as she got out of the car and started up the drive. When she approached the front steps she took a breath before stepping on the first stair. Under normal circumstances excitement would be outweighing her nerves and her hands would be shaking for a totally different reason.

"You know," Rick said as he watched Beckett contemplate the steps in front of her. "The longer you wait, the harder it will be to do."

Kate glared at Castle from the corner of her eye before walking up the three steps leading to the Holtz's front door. With a deep breath, she opened the screen door and knocked on the one behind it. Kate stood there for a few seconds, with her hand on her badge, before the door opened slowly and a woman in her early sixties materialized behind it. Dropping her hand off her badge, Kate looked down at the woman she had grown up knowing. "Marie, I don't know if you remember me or not, my name is—

"Kate!" the older woman exclaimed as she looked at her. "Katie, how could I forget you, come on in," she said as she pushed open the door and allowed the two into her home.

"Thank you," Kate said as she smiled sadly at the older woman. "Marie, this is Richard Castle," she said as she motioned to the man behind her.

Marie smiled and shook his hand before leading them through the foyer and into a brightly lit living room. "Why don't you two have a seat? I was just having some coffee when you knocked, would either of you like any?" she called as she walked into the kitchen.

Castle opened his mouth to respond but Kate spoke up first. "Castle. No," she whispered before calling out, "No, thank you, Marie."

Rick looked at Beckett and leaned over in his chair to say something to her. "Beckett, I know this is difficult…"

Kate closed her eyes in frustration as Castle spoke and opened them up again. "Castle, this isn't like any other news I've had to deliver, I can't just come out with it."

Just as Kate was sitting back up Marie walked into the room holding a cup of coffee, she sat down on the couch across from the pair of her visitors. "Kate Beckett, it's been near eight years since I've seen you last. What brings you around?"

Kate sighed, this was going to be harder to do than she thought. "Marie, I-" she stopped, she couldn't do this. Desperately she looked at Castle for help before looking back to her mother's best friend. "There's something, that I need to tell you," she continued her voice thick.

Marie looked at Kate confused and frightened. Something had happened, she could tell that much, Kate was never one to come out of her way to drop by and say hello. "What is it, Katie?"

Kate closed her eyes, swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to fight away the emotion that she felt building up in her chest. "It has to do with Kim."

Ashley Moore knew something was terribly wrong when she walked in her apartment building and there were two detectives, one clearly Hispanic the other clearly Irish, waiting to speak with her. as she approched them the Hispanic one stepped forward. "Ashley Moore? I'm Detective Javier Esposito," he said as he held up his badge for her to see. "This is my partner, Kevin Ryan," he motioned to the irish looking detective. "Do you have a few moments to spare, I'm afraid we have some bad news."

Upstairs, after Javier delivered the news he watched the twenty five year old club singer cry off her stage makeup. "This makes no sense, she was happy!" she asked as she lifted her teary blue eyes to look into his brown ones. "Why would she do this?"

"That is exactly what I intend to find out," he said as he looked at his partner in the recliner that was next to the couch that they were sitting on.

Kevin nodded his head in reassurance as Ashley looked over at him for conformation. "But in order for us to do that, we are going to have to search the apartment for any evidence, or clues to why she may have done this. Is that going to be a problem?"

Ashley let her deep blue eyes fall to her lap as she shook her head. "No, I don't mind, go ahead, her room is the one on the right."

"Thank you," Javier said as he stood and walked to the back of the apartment. After a moment Ashley, too, rose and followed."I'd start with her bedroom, if you're going to find anything it's going to be in there."

Javier looked over his right shoulder at the young woman beside him and smiled with a single side of his mouth. "Thank you," he said graciously, he knew how hard this had to be for her and still she was offering her help.

"Umm, Detective, I can't just sit still while you two search our apartment, please, if there is anything I can help with…"

Javier thought for a second and paused. He knew, full well, how hard it was to sit still while you were awaiting something. "Would you like to help me look for anything? You'd be a better judge than I would with something like this."

Ashley nodded her head graciously. "Yes, thank you," she said as she opened her roommate's bedroom door.

As it swung open Javier felt his eyes grow wide, the room was completely trashed. "Wow, is her room always this much of a disaster?" he asked as he looked over at Ashley.

"No," Ashley responded her eyes wide as she took in the warzone of a bedroom. "Something's not right…"

Frowning Javier looked at the girl next to him. "What do you mean?"

Panic started to seep its way through her as she stood in the doorway. "If this was anybody else, I wouldn't think twice about their room being a wreck, but Kimmy, she's so obsessive with cleanliness and order," she said as she tore her eyes off the war zone to look at the detective. "She'd never leave her room like this!"

Javier frowned, he did not like where this was headed. "Well, maybe there's a simple reason why her room is such a disaster. Maybe she was looking for something before she went out and was late and didn't have time to clean up."

Ashley shook her head. "No, everything of Kim's has its place. The only time she ever loses something is when I take it, had she done this to my room it would have made more sense. But to her own, the only thing I could think of is maybe she met up with Scott again, he is one of her old boyfriends, and things got a little more heated than expected."

Javier frowned, that wasn't exactly something he'd be telling the police right after he found out that his best friend had died, but he shrugged it off, girls were different after all. "Is that something that happened often?"

Ashley shrugged her shoulders. "Well, her last two relationships ended in infidelity on her part because they would…'catch up'" she said as she made quotes in the air, "and then things would get a little more heated than she originally expected them to."

Javier nodded his head as he looked at the girl in front of him. "Right," he said as he shook his head. "You wouldn't happen to know his last name, would you? we'd like to talk to him, maybe he knows the-"

"Esposito!" Kevin called in an urgent voice, from the kitchen. "Could you come in here, there's something that you need to see!"

When Javier and Ashley arrived in the kitchen they found Kevin Ryan with an emotion on his face he rarely showed, fear. "What is it Detective?" Ashley asked with worry in her voice.

"Look," he said as he pointed to the doorway that led out of the kitchen and into the living room. Carved into the wall, above the doorway, was seven words, "I told you this wasn't over, Heat."

After Kate Beckett delivered the life changing and devastating news, Marie Holtz sat on the couch in her living room with her hand covering her mouth. She felt like she was going to be sick. Her daughter had killed herself? It just didn't make sense. "Kate, are you sure it was her?"

Kate looked at Marie sadly and nodded her head. "Yes, we're sure it's her. Lanie Parrish, our medical examiner compared her to her dental records, it's her."

A new wave of tears escaped the woman's eyes before she looked up at Kate again. "It just doesn't make any sense."

Kate closed her eyes and sighed and reopened them again.

"When was the last time you spoke to your daughter, Mrs. Holtz?" Rick asked speaking for the first time since Beckett had delivered the news.

Kate looked over at Castle in utter shock, he had never overstepped her in an investigation before. She knew she should be irritated at him for doing that, but she couldn't get past the gratefulness she was feeling right now.

Marie looked up at Rick and dabbed her eye with a tissue. "We went to dinner last night, then we came back here and talked for a while. She left to go home around one thirty."

Kate looked at Marie and spoke again. "When we were younger, you and your daughter were very close, were you still?"

Marie nodded her head and actually smiled. "You see these strained mother/daughter relationships where they hate each other, Kimmy and I never had anything like that. After her father died we became closer than ever."

Kate nodded her head and leaned over and took the older woman's hand. "Marie, I know how hard this is for you, but I have to ask you, in the past few weeks had you seen any change in Kimberly's behavior?"

Hopelessly Marie looked into Kate's eyes and shook her head. "No, it doesn't make sense; she was happy. She had a good life, a decent job, great friends, no boyfriend at the time, but Kimmy never needed a guy to make her feel complete. It doesn't fit, why would she kill herself?"

Kate looked at the woman in front of her completely bereaved. Just as she was about to try to offer some words of comfort her cell phone went off. She closed her eyes in annoyance and looked at the screen. It was Lanie, she was probably calling with the tox results from Kimberly's body. With a look of apology toward Marie Kate picked up her phone. "Beckett."

"_Beckett, there's something strange about the body that was brought in here earlier. I ran the tox results and see had a few drinks about an hour or two before she died._"

Kate frowned as she listened to Lanie's words, there was nothing unusual about that, the girl was twenty-three, so she went out and had a couple drinks with her friends or mother. "So what's the strange part?"

"_There is a pretty significant amount of Ketamine in her system, not enough to kill her or make her unresponsive, but enough for her not to use her judgment. The amount one would get on the street._"

Kate nodded her head as if Lanie were sitting across the table from her rather than Marie. "Thank you, Lanie. Let me know if you find anything else out," she said just as Castle's phone began playing Michael Meyers theme song. "Castle!"

Quickly Rick picked up his phone and looked at the screen as he hit a button on the side of his phone to silence it. "But it's Esposito," he said as he showed the phone to Beckett and pointed to the screen. With a roll of Beckett's eyes, that Rick took as the go ahead, he hit the talk button. "Castle."

"_We think Dunn escaped prison!_" Esposito said in a hysterical voice despite his best efforts to keep his voice calm for Ashley's sake.

"_Would you like me to tell you now, or call you right back after we hang up?_" Lanie asked Kate sarcastically.

"No, no, tell me now."

"Dunn?" Castle said unable to comprehend what Esposito was saying. "Tell me you don't mean Scott Dunn," Castle said praying against everything that he would say no.

At the mention of Dunn's name, Kate Beckett, looked up at Castle, her eyes wide. She would never admit to it, but the name still haunted her, still gave her the chills. He had called in the prescient to report a murder he had committed. He toyed with them for days letting them believe that he was Ben Conrad as he committed three more murders to innocent people, one of them being the real Ben Conrad. When they finally thought the case was over and finally let down their guard he blew up Kate's apartment and almost killing her, which is who his target was from the beginning.

With a silent shutter of the memory, Kate realized Lanie was speaking. with a shake of her head Kate focused her attention back on her phone call. "_There are bruising patterns in the shapes of fingers, large fingers, on her upper arms, contusions on her inner thighs, and…and quite a bit more evidence suggesting that she was raped._"

"_Yes, Castle, Scott Dunn, there is something here that leads us to believe that he's escaped and he's coming after Beckett again._"

Kate felt her jaw fall of the hinges of her mouth, Kimberly had been raped, there was the reason there. "So you believe that's the reason she killed herself?"

"Beckett!" Rick said trying to get her attention. When she gave him the one-minute finger, he turned his attention back to Esposito. "What is there that is making you believe that?"

"_Beckett, I don't think she killed herself, I think she was murdered._"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC**

* * *

Forty minutes after they left Marie Holtz Kate and Rick pulled up in front of the crime scene for the second time that day. Things seemed different in the daylight, more real. The police tape was still up around the tree and Ryan and Esposito's cars were both still where they had left them this morning. They were still up stairs with Kimberly's roommate. Kate felt tears come to her eyes as a cool wind blew some of the red and yellow leaves off the tree where Kimberly's body was found. The more she stared at the tree the more questions plagued her mind. Who could have done this? Who hated her that much to end her life? Why did it happen? Kate was focusing on breathing in and out of her nose, to keep her emotions in check, when she felt a large hand be placed softly on her shoulder. As she looked into the face of the famous mystery writer she shook her head. "Castle, I have to solve this murder, her murder. and that means I have to treat everyone involved in this case like a suspect."

Rick nodded his head; he understood what she meant. He had seen too many cases where the killer was someone who they thought was truly devastated. "Well then, we probably should head inside, see what her roommate has to say, and find out why someone wanted you to see this murder."

With a nod of her head Castle and Beckett entered the building, took the elevator up, and knocked on the door of the apartment. When the door opened a young, blonde girl opened the door.

"Ashley moore?" Kate said as she held up her badge to show the girl. "I'm detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. We're here to ask you a few questions about-"

"Kimberly," Ashley said, not asking a question, but simply stating a fact. "Yes, the other two detectives are already here." Ashley opened the door and let both Beckett and Castle inside.

"I'm Richard Castle, just NY," Rick said as he smirked at the young girl; she certainly was attractive.

Ashley frowned. Richard Castle, Richard Castle. where had she heard that name before? Ah, that was it! "Richard Castle? Like the author?"

"The very same," Rick said as he extended his hand and shook Ashley's as he looked over at Beckett.

Kate was standing by the sofa with her arms crossing staring puzzled at Castle. must he always run into someone who was a fan? She knew that was the price they paid for him being famous, but she had a murder to solve. When the girl finally came over and sat down Kate looked up at her, her eyelashes were stuck together, the whites of her eyes were bloodshot red, and the skin around her eyes was puffy. "Ashley, I know the other detectives have already spoken with you, but if you don't mind, I have a few more questions." With a pained breath Kate saw her shake her head. "listen, I know how hard this is for you-"

"Really?" Ashley said unbelievingly; the tears had begun to form in her eyes again. All cops said that, it was some form of comfort thing, but none of them really meant it, it was all a platitude. "Who did you lose then?"

Kate took a deep breath and she looked up through the corner of her eye at Castle, who was standing right beside where she was sitting; he was loyal, she had to give him that. When Kate looked back at Ashley she said, "My mother, I was your age when it happened. But I'm not the reason we're here."

As the words came out of the detective's mouth Ashley felt her jaw drop. She felt so foolish.

Kate was silent for a moment, having no idea what to say to the girl sitting in front of her, she couldn't very well tell her that she knew Kimberly as well. That would have been unprofessional, with nowhere else to turn she looked up at the man standing above her.

"Ashley, do you have any reason to believe that Kimberly would try to hurt herself?" Rick asked tentatively.

Ashley lifted her head to stare at the man in front of her in utter disbelief. Kimberly commit suicide, it was insane! Plus, they had proof it was a murder. "What?" Ashley asked horrified.

Feeling immense pity for the young woman in front of her Kate leaned forward and looked Ashley in the eyes. "I know this hard, but if we're going to figure this out, we're going to need your help."

Ashley shook her head. "No, she loved her mother, her friends, her life too much to kill herself. She was murdered."

Kate Beckett sat at her desk, later that afternoon as she sorted through the case files of Scott Dunn. Something was off about this case; something just didn't feel like him. An annoying little voice, that sounded much like Castle's echoed in her head, _we don't know how he killed, he was pretending to be Ben Conrad, remember_? With a deep breath, Kate tried to ignore the voice and focus on the file in front of her.

"Have you heard back from the prison yet?" Rick said curiously, as he walked up to Beckett's desk holding a Styrofoam drink carrier with four twenty ounce Java Loft coffees in it.

As she heard Castle's voice Kate's body both cringed and jumped for joy at the exact same time. As she lifted her hazel eyes from the case file she was reading and up at her partner she resisted the urge to bite her bottom lip. He had bought her coffee! Instead of showing her true emotion, she looked at him annoyed. "Castle, what are you doing? I told you to go home."

Castle smirked; there was no way she was going to get rid of him that easily. No, not until he knew if she was in any immediate danger, he thought he lost her once, and he wasn't going to go through that again. "And until I'm sure you're safe, I'm not leaving your side. Now have you heard back from the prison yet?"

Kate exhaled and nodded her head as she thought back on the conversation she had just had with the warden. "Yes," she said as she gazed onto the desktop of her computer. "They can't seem to locate Dunn," she said as she ran her fingers through her hair, looked up into Castle's crystal clear blue eyes, and said, "but they have no perimeter breech."

Rick frowned; so did that mean he escaped and was guilty of another homicide, or he was just hiding and had that much less blood on his hands? As the thoughts were warring inside his head the black plastic phone on Beckett's desk rang. Before the ring had completed she had clasped it in her hand and brought it to her ear. "Beckett."

"_Detective, it's Henry Vice. We spoke a while back about the, uh,_" the warden sucked his teeth before continuing. "_Whereabouts of Scott Dunn, well, I'm pleased to inform ya, we found him. So we can come on down whenever y'all are ready_," he said in a thick southern accent.

Kate nodded her head as the warden spoke to her. Part of her wanted to jump for joy that they indeed had the man in custody another part of her wanted to go throw up at the thought of facing him again. "We're ready, bring him down."

As Beckett hung up the phone, she turned toward Rick and as she did, he almost gasped. Her face was white as a ghost. He had seen her face that pale only once before, the day she interrogated Dick Coonan. "Are you all right?"

Kate stared at her computer screen, not really seeing anything. Was she all right? There was a laugh. She was about to face a man who had made an attempt on her life. No, she certainly was not all right. With a deep breath, she turned to Castle. "What if I let her down, Castle?" she asked not voicing her true fears.

Rick felt the side of his mouth lift automatically, just like he did every time Beckett made herself vulnerable. "You won't," he said with unwavering confidence.

Kate looked to her left, into Castle's face. Uncertainty was flooding her body, when she had first heard of the engraving in the wall in the kitchen of Kimberly's apartment she was sure it was Dunn. It had to be, he was the only person she could think of that would have dedicated a murder to her, and the fact that she knew Kimberly made all the more sense. Now, though, after looking through his files and having the police find him her certainty was shattered. "How do you know?"

Rick looked at Beckett's face and he shrugged. "Because Nikki Heat wouldn't."

Kate Beckett rose from her desk chair the minute that the warden, Dunn, and a task force of officers exited the elevator. Kate felt the bile rise up in her throat as she looked at the man who was Scott Dunn. At least what was left of him; his hair had gotten longer, on both his head and on his face, he had dark circles under his eyes and he seemed to be more skeletal than he was when she arrested him. As Dunn was carted off to the interrogation room by two police officers she grabbed Dunn's rap sheet and walked over to the group with Castle tailing close behind her. "Henry Vice, I'm Detective Kate Beckett," she said as she held out the hand that did not contain the folder.

Henry Vice extended his own hand and grasped the young detective's. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he said as he ran his hand through his groomed gray hair and a smile formed across his thin lips revealing yellow teeth.

With a great deal of effort, Rick held in any exclamations about the state of his mouth, it was probably from chewing tobacco. "Richard Castle," he said as he leaned forward and shook the warden's hand as well.

The middle-aged warden raised his eyebrows at first Beckett then in turn at Castle. "Richard Castle, huh? That's funny; you got the same name as that there novelist."

Kate looked toward Castle and they exchanged a glance. "Well the interrogation room is this way," she said as she began to walk down the hallway followed by the two men. "Mr. Vice, if you don't mind, I'm going to ask you to stay in the interrogation room with Castle, I'd like to question Mr. Dunn on my own."

Rick looked at the back of Kate completely dumbfounded. "You're kicking me out?" he said with the same tone a five year old would use right after his mother told him he could not go along with his older brother to play in the woods.

"No, Castle," Kate said as she briefly looked over her right shoulder. "I'm just not letting you in."

"That won't be a problem, Detective," he said as he tailed her, his deep gray eyes not straying for a second from her back. "I'd be delighted to observe with Mr. Castle."

_Great!_ Rick thought sarcastically as he glared at the warden from the corner of his eyes. What made him even more uneasy was the beautiful smile Beckett graced him with when she turned around.

"This is it," Kate said as she opened the door and allowed Castle to go in first. As Henry was about to walk through the door Kate touched his bicep to stop him from going any further for a second. "You know, officer, if you watched your inmates as closely as you were just watching my ass, we may not be here right now."

At the detective's words, Henry felt the color drain from his face. How did she see that? She was turned around! However, he recovered quickly and gave her another yellow smile. "Yes, well I have to say I'm glad I didn't," he said and continued into the room.

As Rick heard the words that came out of the warden's mouth he froze, anger not letting him take another step. How dare he talk to Beckett like that, as if she was nothing more than a one-night stand! He turned around to face the two of them and Beckett flashed her eyes at him, warning him not to say anything. "You know, that line sounded familiar," Rick said as he walked up to Beckett. "Like I may have read it in a book or something…"

Kate smirked at him and then looked through the observation room window. She took in a deep breath before speaking. "Yes, well, Nikki Heat did have a couple good lines," she said and walked out the observation room. As she opened the door to the interrogation room Dunn lifted his head and an eerie smile made its way across his skeletal face. "Hello Nikki."

With her head held high and her eyes against the back wall Kate walked into the room and opened up Dunn's file. "Scott Dunn, you have the right to have a lawyer present, if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you."

Scott looked up at the detective from his currently favorite novel. She was nervous; he could see it in her face. "What is with the formalities? You act as if we do not know each other. What do I need a lawyer for, Heat? You already have me in custody. What more trouble can I get myself into?"

For the first time, since entering the interrogation room Kate looked up into the face of Scott Dunn. "Where were you between the hours of two and six a.m. this morning?"

Scott laughed, surely, she was joking, where else would he be. "That all depends, Detective, where was the place you and Jordan sentenced me?"

Kate nodded her head as she lifted her eyelids from the file and glanced at him. "Tell me, Dunn, do you know an Ashley Moore or a Kimberly Holtz?"

Scott thought for a minute, he knew he didn't recognize the name, he made it a point not to make familiarities with people unless he intended to use them. "Nope, no, don't know them. Why?"

Kate looked up at Dunn, and pulled a picture of Kimberly out of the file and slammed it on the table in front of him. "This girl, right here, you're telling me you don't know her?" she said accusatorily.

Scott nodded his head. He didn't know why nikki kept asking him the same questions over and over, he was in prison for life, he had no reason to lie. "No, Nikki, I didn't see the girl last night, I've never seen her."

Kate was puzzled, this was not the Scott Dunn, she knew, this one was calm and passive and almost lucid. "Kimberly Holtz was murdered sometime early this morning, around the same time as the prison guards lost track of you."

Scott raised his eyebrows. The guards couldn't find him last night, so what? What did her murder have to do with him? "Nikki, use your head. If I escaped from the tombs, the last thing I would do after I murdered someone would go back."

Kate dropped the file on the table and leaned in close to Dunn's face. "Then tell me why in her apartment we found the words, 'I told you this wasn't over, Heat' carved into the wall! The same exact words you said to me when I arrested you six months ago!" she hollered at him.

A satisfied smile made its way across Henry Vice's thin lips again as he watched Beckett lean over the table to yell at Dunn. He guessed she didn't know that she needn't yell at him, Dunn was cooperative if nothing else, so he appeared anyway. When Beckett stood back up Henry turned to face Castle. "You know, you're a lucky man Castle."

Rick tore his eyes off the interrogation going on in the other room to look at the man that stood beside him. he frowned at him before opening his mouth to respond. "Thank you, I know," Castle paused just to watch the shocked look wipe over Vice's face. "Why do you say that though?"

Henry smiled at the writer. "You get to accompany and observe Ms. Beckett on all of her cases, am I right?" he said as he eyed the observation room window.

Rick nodded; he didn't know where he was going with this question, but he didn't like it. Truthfully, the man could have just been standing there breathing and he would not have liked it. There was something, he couldn't quite place what it was that bothered Rick about the man. "On most days, but I generally like to think of my work more of participate and annoy. Annoying people is fun, and work is meant to be fun."

"Ha," Henry exclaimed at Castle's words. "Maybe in your line of work, son, but in mine…" he shook his head before continuing. "It's like babysitting grown-ups. But you never know, if I had someone like Ms. Beckett to work with, it might be fun," he said as he winked at Castle.

Rick frowned; why didn't anybody get that it wasn't like that between Beckett and himself? Yeah feelings for her were there, but that was where everything ended, whatever happened between them was strictly friendly or professional. Rick shook his head as he watched Beckett turn and give him a look of impatience. "There's nothing going on between Beckett and me, not like that anyway."

Henry looked at Castle with a look that clearly said the word that was being shouted in his head right now was Bull. "Rick, who am I going to tell? Really, you don't need to lie for her to me about it."

Rick looked at Vice through the corner of his eye and frowned. "Just out of curiousity, because you're not the first person to inquire about it, what makes you think that Beckett and I are sleeping together?"

Henry looked at Castle almost surprised. For being a bestselling author, he certainly paid little attention to the details in his own life. He wondered if he even realized it himself. "I just see the way you look at her," he said just as the door opened and Beckett stepped through. Neither of the men even noticed her leaving the room.

Kate stood in the doorway staring at the two men. What way did Castle look at who? Surely Vice couldn't have been talking about her. No, Castle flirted, a lot, but he'd never be serious enough to actually develop feelings for her. "Thank you, Mr. Vice, I'm all through with him."

A saddened feeling of regret flooded Henry Vice as he nodded. "Did you get a confession out of him? I saw you yelling pretty harshly."

"No," Kate said rather shortly. "No, he keeps insisting that he had no way of sneaking out of the prison and back in without you guys knowing about it."

Henry nodded his head. Dunn was right, there was no way he could breech the perimeter without the entire jail knowing. Nevertheless, he thought if any man would be able to do it, it would be Dunn. His intelligence surpassed all the other inmates, which is probably why it took so long to catch him in the first place. "He's right. Now detective Beckett, would you please grant me the honor of walking me to the elevator?"

As Kate Beckett walked back from the elevator to her desk, she noticed someone was not only in her chair but also had their feet up on her desk as well. "Castle," she said as she hit his feet off the desk, "how many times do I have to tell you to get out of my chair?"

"Sorry," Rick said as he closed the manila folder he was looking through and got up. As he reseated himself in his appropriate chair, he opened the file and began reading through it again without saying a word to Beckett.

"Castle, what is it that you are doing?" Kate said as she watched those blue eyes go back and forth as he put his speed reading abilities to use. "Reading" was all he responded as his eyes never left the page.

A few moments passed before Rick tore his eyes away from the file and onto Beckett. She was watching the surveillance video they had gotten from the super of Kimberly's building, in fast forward. He wasn't sure why she was bothering, they'd both gone through the video earlier in the afternoon today. "Beckett, have you read through these files since this morning?" Rick asked and jiggled the folder when she looked up.

"Oh, you're done now," she said her voice a façade of excitement. "Yes Castle, of course I've read through those. Would they have been on my desk if I hadn't read them?"

Rick looked at Beckett almost puzzled and then down at his lap. "I should really start thinking before I speak."

"Or you could just think; it'd be a lot quieter here that way."

Rick narrowed his blue eyes as Beckett's profile. "So you left in quite a hurry with Mr. Warden, you never got to tell me your opinion on it."

Kate pulled her eyes away from the computer screen to look at Castle. "Honestly, he's innocent, I knew that even before I got the call from Vice."

Rick looked at Beckett dumbfounded. _He_ never thought Dunn had done it, but he thought Beckett might not be as compassionate. "Why?"

Kate shook her head as she turned back to her computer screen. "Look at all the proof, the evidence," she said as she turning her chair to face Castle and holding up a single finger. "Dunn was in the tombs, last night, and no one crosses that boarder without them knowing about it and there was no breech." She counted off a second finger as she continued on, "Kimberly was raped, in the entirety of Dunn's rap sheet there is not a single count of sexual assault." She counted off a third finger as she concluded. "Even when Dunn was posing as Conrad he made each murder obvious it was a murder, even right down to Conrad. Dunn's innocent, Castle."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC**

* * *

Isabelle Wilder picked up her phone and for the tenth time and dialed her Fiancé's phone number for the tenth time as she came to a stop light. It rang about eight times before, for the tenth time, his voicemail picked up. With a sigh of frustration, she slammed the phone shut and threw it onto the leather passenger's seat next to her. Oh, the man was driving her completely bonkers today. As the light turned green, she stomped on the gas pedal a little too hard as she went around the turn. She clenched her teeth together as she heard her tires squeal. _Great,_ she thought, _there goes twenty miles off my tires._ Maybe she was truly a reckless driver as everyone told her she really was.

As she crossed the intersection of West 82nd street and Columbus Avenue her breathing came to a temporary stop and her eyes widened. The entire street was covered in fire trucks, squad cars, a paramedics vehicle, and even at the end of the street, she thought she saw a corner's van. As her heart went out to the victims' loved ones she momentarily forgot her frustration at the man in her life, for all she wanted to do right now was be in his arms.

As her drive became futile, she parked her car on the side the road and began walking down the street toward her fiancé's home. She did not get halfway to her destination when an officer with a gray mustache stopped her. "I'm sorry, Miss, but you're going to have to turn around, I can't let you though."

Isabelle let out a sigh of disappointment; magical, now she was going to have to get back into her car, drive all the way back and take the long way around. "Oh, please sir, my fiancé's house is only a couple more yards down that way. Could you please just let me walk through, it would save me so much time," she said as she batted her long eyelashes that she knew no man could resist. "I'd let you escort me if you'd like."

The older cop sighed as he looked at the woman in front of him and he caved. "All right, Miss, you tell me which one it is and I'll walk you to it."

Isabelle let a genuine smile light up her face for the officer in front of her. "Great! Thank you so much, it's house number 182."

The officer who had began to turn and walk toward the house came to a sudden stop and a pit began to form in his stomach. He turned around to face the young woman. "Ma'am, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."

"Hey Beckett," Detective Pasquale called as he hung up the phone. As Kate turned her hazel eyes on the large detective, she could tell something was wrong. His face said it all. He sighed before he went on. "There's been fire," he said and he looked down. "It happened on 182 West 82nd street. Somebody died."

As the words left the detective's mouth it triggered something in Kate, why did that address sound so familiar? Suddenly, as she remembered where she knew it from she felt her face go white. "No," she whispered to herself. No, it could not be not another one, not in the same day.

Rick looked up at Beckett's colorless face for the second time that day. "Beckett?" he asked meekly. "What is it?"

As Beckett looked over at Rick he saw the terror, panic, and fear all wrapped into one in her eyes. She knew someone who lived in that building; with a sickening feeling, Rick remembered on their first day working together he had guessed she had grown up in Manhattan. Was it possible that her father still lived there? "Will lives on that street," she all but whispered.

Rick frowned; Will? Surely, she could not mean her old boyfriend, Will Sorenson, could she? "You don't mean Mr. Tall, Brooding and-"

"Sorenson," she said as she glared at Castle through the corner of her eye. "I mean Will Sorenson, Castle." as she spoke her words were thick through her teeth. It drove her insane how even when she needed him to be serious he could be nothing but an overgrown man-child.

Rick looked at Beckett compassionately. It was obvious on her face that he had gone too far with his jokes at an inappropriate moment. "Well then, let's go quell your fears and prove that it is not him."

As Kate Beckett and Richard Castle pulled up in front of the town house, Kate felt all feeling drain out of her body. She felt nothing but numbness as she stared at the charred area around where the windows used to be. As she placed her hand over her mouth, she felt tears right behind her eyes. It had been Will's house.

Rick looked at Beckett next to him sitting stone-faced staring at the burnt home. Had this house been Will's? He did not dare ask. However, by the grief stricken look upon the detective's face he guessed it had been. Without saying a word, he got out of the car and rounded to the driver's side. He looked down at Beckett, in the few seconds since he had gotten out of the car she had closed her eyes.

Kate sat there for what felt like a million years as she heard Castle's door open and then close. She truly was alone; both relieved and devastated by her solitude she closed her eyes in hopes to gain control of her emotions. She wouldn't dare let those officers see her cry. It was hard enough being a woman detective; she did not need all the jokes about her being sappy. Surprise wracked her body as she heard the latch of her door being released. Her eyes shot open and her head swiveled to the side to find Castle standing there; one hand on the door, one hand extended toward her to take as she wished. "Thank you, Castle," she said as she took his hand and he pulled her out of the car.

As Beckett grasped his hand utter shock went through his body, and he tried to ignore the glee he felt having her smaller hand in his own. This was not the time or the place to be imagining Beckett's hand in his own as they walked through central park on a Sunday afternoon.

As soon as Kate stood up fully she dropped Castle's hand. In the back recesses of her mind she was surprised how wonderfully her hand fit inside Rick Castle's, but there was not much time to acknowledge that fact as she swept the crowd looking for any sign of Will. To her dismay, she did not find one. With a deep breath, she put one foot in front of the other and forced herself to take small slow steps toward the house where she had spent so much time not so many years ago. As she watched the paramedics wheel a body out on a stretcher her body froze. She could not move another step.

Noticing Beckett's cease in movement Rick stopped and turned around to face his muse. Ever since she received the news from Detective Pasquale Beckett had barely regained any of the color in her face. "Kate," Rick began and waited for her to meet his eyes. "Be honest with me, can you handle this?"

An involuntary smirk crossed the detective's lips and fell off almost immediately. With a shake of her head she broke away from eye contact with her partner and looked into the distance. "I have to."

Empathy filled Rick up as he reached out and took Beckett's hand. Just as he expected she gently pulled her hand out of his grasp and let it fall by her side once again. When she looked him in the face again he spoke, "No, Beckett, you don't have to. You can let one of the other detectives-"

"No, Castle, I can't," she said as grief filled her words. "I can't just give up Will's case to some other detective like he meant nothing to me!" she was silent as she looked down at the ground. "Do you Sarah Manning's case?"

Rick thought for a moment before it came to him; it was their first official case together. The first case she actually let him participate in. "Of course, who could forget Nanny McDead?" he said in a somber tone.

To Castle's surprise a small smile found its way across Kate's lips. "Do you remember when we were going to talk to Chloe, we were talking about marriage, and you asked me if there was 'any serious candidates' I think was the phase you used?"

Rick frowned as the words came out of Beckett's mouth, he knew where this was going and he did not want to hear it, but he'd be damned before he stopped her from talking. "Yeah, I remember."

Kate nodded her head before dropping it down to the sidewalk once more and closing her eyes. Could she allow the words to come out without breaking down? "He was the serious candidate."

When Castle and Beckett finally made it to the crime scene they found Ryan and Esposito already there talking with the neighbors of Will Sorenson. Kate took a breath; maybe it would be easiest if she took the repressed feelings she had always had for the man out of this. Maybe it would be easier if she just pretended he was still alive.

As Kevin Ryan thanked the older woman who lived across the street from Sorenson, he noticed Castle and Beckett both at the crime scene. Much to his great surprise there was no evidence of tears or that she had been crying upon Beckett's face. "Hey," he said compassionately as he walked up to Beckett. "You finally made it."

Kate nodded her head; she had to put a wall up, it was the only way she was going to be able to give Will any justice. "What do you know, Ryan?" she asked in a matter-of-fact voice.

Kevin looked at Beckett a little taken aback by her tone of voice. "Not much," he said deciding to ignore it. "We don't know yet the cause of the fire but we have uniforms inside trying to figure it out. From what Lanie gathered it seems to be that he died in his sleep, the-"

Kate swallowed as Ryan was talking. "It is Will though?" she asked knowing the answer already but hoping beyond hope that for once she would be wrong.

A nod of Ryan's head confirmed her fears. Will truly was gone. Kate took in a ragged breath as she closed her eyes and tried not to let any of her tears escape. She had to be strong, if not for herself than she had to be strong for Will. After a period of silence Ryan decided to speak up again. "If you're looking for Esposito he's over by the Corner's van speaking with…"

Rick frowned as Ryan's words drifted off. What wasn't he saying? What wasn't he telling them? "With who, Ryan?"

Looking at Beckett, instead of Castle, Ryan opened his mouth to deliver more news that he was sure the detective did not want to hear. "He's talking to Sorenson's fiancé."

At Ryan's words Kate felt her eyes widen; her grief momentarily coated by another jab in the pit of her stomach. Will was engaged? But what about her, did she now mean nothing to him when just a year ago he had told her he wanted her back? Just as the thought went through her head Kate closed her eyes in embarrassment, a year truly was a long time. Not everyone had a famous mystery author following them around and hanging on their every moment. Lifting her head up to look Ryan in the eye she asked, "What's her name?"

With a deep breath Kate walked up to the woman Will would have spent the rest of his life with. "Ms. Wilder? I'm Kate Beckett; I'm the detective who's going to be-"

As the detective in front of her began to speak Isabelle felt her jaw fall slightly open. This couldn't be the same woman, could it? "Kate?" she said in disbelief. She shook her head not sure if she would be able to go on with her question. "You're not the same Kate Beckett I'm thinking of are you?"

Kate frowned at the woman in front of her. the same Kate Beckett she was thinking of? Could Will have told his fiancé about his past relationship with her? it appeared so, but she could not understand why he would do that. "How do you know me?"

Isabelle smiled a polite yet pained smile. "Will." she paused for a moment as she looked up into the blue sky and the clouds above her. It was such a beautiful day to have her world fall down around her. "He would talk about you all the time, whenever, something reminded him of you, I would hear about it." Again she smiled politely. "He never really got over you; that was obvious to anybody that knew him."

Kate looked at Isabelle compassionately; it was one thing losing a man you loved knowing he loved you back. However, it was another thing entirely to lose a man you loved knowing his heart and his devotion rested in the being of someone else. Kate opened her mouth to say something, but nothing seemed appropriate.

"You don't have to say anything, Detective," Isabelle said as she noticed Beckett struggling for words. She wiped a tear from her eye before continuing. "You see, I don't mind being second, as long as the only thing I am second to… is a memory."

"Umm, Detective Beckett," an unsure voice called from the charred doorway of Will's home. As soon as he had Beckett's attention he spoke again, "Can you come here a minute, I think there is something here that you need to see."

"Okay," Kate said frowning and began to walk away before remembering Will's fiancé. The thought stopped her in her tracks, Will Sorenson's fiancé, the words just sounded strange together. As she turned to the woman she looked at her sympathetically. "I'm sorry about this, I shouldn't be any more than a moment," she said and with that, she turned around and headed toward the charred doorway and the fire marshal. The closer she got to the doorway and the burned contents of inside the house the more labored her walking became. It was not that she was doing this on purpose but with each step, she had a different memory of him. When she finally made it to the front steps, she paused once again and closed her eyes.

_Kate Beckett was in the interrogation room staring through the glass at Dick Coonan. If she had any matter of luck in the world she was about to find out who the man was who was responsible for her mother's death. She could feel Castle standing right behind her, staring at her. she could tell that he wanted to something to her. He was too quiet, he was always silent when he wanted to say something but could not find the words to say it with. Finally, after what felt like an hour, she heard him inhale. "Are you okay?"_

_Kate heard Castle speak but did not take her eyes off the man that she was watching through the glass. "Ten years, since we came home and found that detective waiting for us." she paused for a brief second. "Ten years," she said slowly as if trying to make Castle understand how painful and how difficult this was for her. "Since we crossed that yellow tape and went into that alley, and every time I cross that yellow tape at a crime scene I think of that night," she continued quickly._

_Castle looked at her compassionately. He wanted to comfort her, she could tell by that by the intense stare she felt him giving. "That's what makes you such a good cop."_

_Kate stared through the glass a few seconds longer, he certainly was an amazing guy when he wanted to be. A sudden fear gripped Kate, what if no matter how good of a cop she was, it would never be good enough? She turned her head to the side and looked at Castle over her right shoulder. "What if I let her down?" she whispered, in hopes of hiding the fear and emotion in her voice. _

_Kate bit her lip as she waited for Castle's response. She hoped to god he would have faith in her even when she couldn't find it in herself. He looked at Kate very seriously as he took a deep breath and adjusted his coat. He was facing her as he began to speak but his eyes were on Dick Coonan. "Do you know why I chose you for my inspiration to Nikki Heat?"he asked as he turned his bright blue on her._

_Kate closed her eyes; all her hopes that Castle had the faith when she lacked it had gone astray. He didn't believe in her any more than she believed in herself at this moment. She had asked him a question that she needed reassurance to and he starts talking about the character he's basing on her. "No," she answered as she tried to fight back the tears of frustration that she felt beginning to form in the back of her eyes. "Why?"_

_Castle looked at Kate very seriously. She saw something in his eyes, but she couldn't exactly be sure what it was. "Because you're tall."_

_Kate looked at Castle incuriously at first before she realized that he was complimenting and teasing her at the same time. A smile broke across her lips as she realized she was wrong, he had all the faith in her that she could ever need. _

_As the smirk came across Kate's face she saw Castle return it before she turned her head to look out the glass again at her suspect. As she licked her lips ready to say something back to Castle, he spoke. "Now go in there and do your job."_

_Kate nodded her head her smile now gone but in place of it a look of assurance and confidence._

"Detective?" the fire marshal asked warily pulling Kate out of her memory. Ignoring him for a second more she looked around the scene for any sign of Castle. If she needed assurance at any time, it was right now. As she saw Castle joking around with Ryan and Esposito, she closed her eyes in disappointment and looked back up at the man. "Can you come inside? There's something that I think you need to see."

Rick was smiling at a bit of light humor that Esposito cracked when he saw Beckett, standing by the door of will's house, looking at him. it was only a second before she looked away but he saw the neediness on her face and then disappointment when she realized what he was doing. Of course, she'd never pull her away from her two other partners, so she just turned and faced the fire marshal. As Beckett placed her foot on the first step, Rick jogged over to her.

As Kate started up the stairs she heard someone behind her, as she turned her head she felt her face break out into the first genuine smile she had since she had found Kimberly's body. She should have known Castle would never let her down.

The smile on Beckett's face at his arrival stunned Rick for a moment, he could not remember a time when he had actually seen her happy to see him. There was a first time for everything though. "So what are we doing?" he asked as he ran up the steps following her.

Instead of Beckett the fire marshal answered Castle's question. "There is something inside the house, that I think Detective Beckett, and yourself for that matter, need to see, follow me." As the he walked inside the charred entrance Kate and Rick looked at each other and followed in suit.

As Kate stepped inside what remained of the house a sudden gasp came upon her. everything from the floors all the way to the ceiling beams was covered in black. As the fire marshal took them through the house, she looked at her surroundings and in her mind's eye saw what this place used to be. Warm, loving, terribly decorated, but comfortable nonetheless. Now the place, like the world around it, was cold and empty of Will.

Kate didn't see the man stop at first and almost collided with his back when he did. She looked him straight in the face frowning, when she noticed that his eyes were not on her. They were on the wall. As Kate turned her head to see what he was staring at her body went cold. For there, painted on the wall in red fire resistant paint, that resembled blood, were the words "Two down _ to go. How many must die before you catch me Nikki?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC**

* * *

"But Sir, with all due respect, there is no reason that I shouldn't stay at my apartment tonight," Kate said to Montgomery trying to make him see reason. She did not want to stay at Castle's place again, it was bad enough he let her invade one night.

"Beckett, we can't be sure if the intended target is you or Castle. Now if Castle says he thinks it's a good idea that you stay with him I am well inclined to agree with him. We don't have the bodies available to baby sit both your buildings."

Kate inhaled as she heard her captain's words. How could he be doing this to her, had she not been through enough stress for one day? "Thank you very much, Sir, but I do not need security detail on my building. I'll be fine, I am well trained how to get rid of an intruder."

Roy Montgomery looked at Beckett sternly. Why must she always be so stubborn, it is not as if he was saying this to punish her. "Beckett, the last time I left your building unsecured we almost lost you," he stood up out of his chair as he said his next words, "now, I will be damned before I make that mistake again! I will not lose one of our own because you think you'll be safe. Consider it an order."

Kate looked at Montgomery with fire in her eyes. She hated it when he acted like her father, and she hated it even more when Castle requested things that she did not agree with. All she wanted to do after today was go home and grieve the ones that she had lost. With a shake of her head, she realized that was not going to happen, she would be dead and buried before she let Castle see her cry. Without saying another word, she stood from the chair she was sitting in and left the office.

When Kate exited out of the office, she found Ryan, Esposito, and Castle all surrounding her desk looking solemn. Kate frowned; it was rare to see a saddened look on a single one of their faces much less on all three, especially when they were all together. As she got closer she heard them talking. "We have to tell her, she deserves that much!" Castle had said with a fierceness in his voice that she didn't think she had ever heard him use before.

Kate watched Ryan look at Castle astounded. "Didn't you see her at the crime scene? She was devastated!" Kate closed her eyes in defeat; she had tried so hard to hide her emotions from everyone around her. She had tried so hard to make it look like this case did not affect her more than any other case. "Do you know what this news would do to her?"

Castle sighed and looked at Javier. He shook his head and looked over at his partner. Regretfully he replied, "Castle's right, Bro, we have to tell her."

Swallowing a thick lump in her throat Kate walked over to the huddle of men. With each step, her mind was screaming at her to turn around and run in the other direction. Even without hearing, what she had just heard she knew the news was bad; she could tell by the expressions on their faces. "Tell me what?" she asked as she approached them.

Castle was the first to look up when he heard Kate's voice, followed by Esposito and finally Ryan. Each face was more solemn than the next. With a sigh of deep remorse, Castle spoke first. "What did Montgomery have to say?"

Kate sighed; she should have known they would deviate from telling her the news. "It's not important," she said and waited staring at the men as they slowly, one by one, looked down at their shoes. "Okay, before there's another murder, someone tell me the news!"

This time, it was Esposito, who raised his head, and the first to speak. "Lanie called, while you were in the office talking to Montgomery."

Kate nodded her head; At least now, she was getting some information out of them. She did not understand it, before she arrived Castle and Esposito were all for telling her the bad news, but now all of them were clammed up. "Well what did she say?"

Kevin swallowed as he looked up at Beckett; his stomach was churning as he thought of her reaction to the news. "She had just finished with Sorenson's autopsy…."

Noticing Ryan was struggling to relay the news to Beckett, Rick spoke up and saved him from having to spill the news himself. "There were no signs of smoke inhalation in his lungs or in his throat."

Kate frowned at Castle; she was hearing the words that were coming out of his mouth but he could have been saying them in an entirely different language for how much she understood them.

Seeing her look of confusion on her face Rick took a step closer to Beckett and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Beckett, I'm so sorry, but Sorenson didn't die in that fire, he was murdered."

With the news laid out in front of her, face for her to see, she could not argue any longer that there had been a mistake. That by some miracle it was not Will who had died in that house. As she thought back on everything that had happened, today she felt her hazel eyes fill up with tears, and before she could stop herself she felt her body crumple against Castle's chest and his arms gently wrap around her as the tears cascaded from her eyes.

Later that night, Kate Beckett sat at the dining room table of Castle's apartment with both Kimberly and Will's case files opened in front of her. She had read over every single line in both files over one hundred times and still she could find no connection between the two murders. She ran her fingers through her hair and let her hand rest on her scalp as she heard a door close. "Hey," Castle said as he padded over to her.

She looked up from the files and gave him a weak smile. He had been distant, frighteningly so, since they had arrived at his apartment. She wondered if it was because of what happened at the prescient earlier today."Hey Castle."

Rick looked down at the paperwork and pictures she had strewn across half of the table. "How are you doing?" he said cautiously as he sat down in a chair cattycorner from her.

Kate shook her head as she looked up at Castle. "These murders…I don't understand them, they're all so pointless, there's no connection other than the messages left on the wall."

Rick looked at her trying to go through the facts in his mind. Truth was though; he did not know them, or much about either of them. "Well Will was an FBI agent….and," he said rushing his next words in excitement, "Kimberly was dating some guy in the witness protection program that our guy wanted dead. So in revenge for putting him into hiding he kills the fed that's protecting him and his girlfriend to punish the guy before he kills him."

Kate looked up at Castle and raised her eyebrows. It was a good theory she had to admit but it still had some holes. "So, where does Nikki Heat play in all of this?"

Rick thought for a minute; she was right, in order for their murderer to place blame on Nikki then she had to play into the story somehow, or Kate did. Jordan Shaw's words went through his head, "_…maybe he was reading the book when it was killed, when he snapped he said 'I'll blame Nikki for it.'_" But no, it was too easy; it would not have been how he would have written it. He opened his mouth to say something when another voice resounded in his memory. "_Castle, you and I have known each other long enough for me to know that sometimes your crazy theories are right. So if you have a reason to believe he's not up there, then you need to tell me why, now._" With dawning realization, he looked up at Beckett. "Simple, he's a copy cat killer. He knows Dunn, he's finishing his story for him, but because you didn't let him succeed the first time, he's punishing you by killing those you love."

Kate looked at Castle with almost a smirk across her face. She loved it how creative his mind could be when he wanted it to. "Okay, well there's motive; but what's the story?"

Rick frowned at Beckett. "The story?"

"Why these two? Why murder them? There's no story, there's no chain of events that makes everything make sense."

Rick smiled as he heard his own words come out of Beckett's mouth for the second time that day. Thinking he lifted a picture of each of the victims. Furrowing his brow, he stared at the pictures intently as if their connection was going to write itself out on the photo for him to see.

As Kate watched Castle's brow furrow she felt her lips lift into a small smile. She had no idea that a smile, no matter how small it may be, could feel so good atop her lips. "It's a good thing we aren't playing poker, Mr. Castle, that expression is deadly."

Rick looked up at Beckett astounded. After the day she had, had today was she actually making light of the situation she was in? He smirked to himself; he must have had more on an effect on her than she was giving him credit for. As he looked at Beckett's face, her expression was calmer than he had seen all day. "I think I'd rather be playing poker."

Kate looked at Castle not at all trying to hide the surprise that her face showed. "Really? A serial killer, to you, I thought would have been like finding the Isla de Muerta."

Rick shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it would be, if it wasn't hurting you so much," he said as he reached over and slid his fingers under Beckett's hand that was resting on the table. Much to Rick's great pleasure she did not pull away this time.

Kate opened her mouth to convey her appreciation for not only his words but for his help when she heard footsteps on the stairs behind her.

"Hey Dad I-" Alexis began as she scampered into the dining room. As she saw Beckett's hand in her father's she felt surprise consume her body and her blue eyes grew wide.

Simultaneously Rick dropped Beckett's hand, she pulled hers away, and they both put their hands in their laps. Rick lifted his head up toward Alexis, but did not meet her eyes. He knew she was going to have him do some explaining but he was just hoping she would not do it here. "What is it, Sweetie?"

"I-um," Alexis said pulling her eyes off the spot where they were holding hands a second ago to her father's face. "I was just coming to say goodnight." She walked over to her father and kissed him on the cheek before spotting the pictures on the table. Lifting one up she turned to Beckett. "Are these pictures from the crime scenes?" she said aghast.

Kate nodded her head as she saw the pictures Alexis was looking at in her head. She got chills as she thought of them. "Yeah they are."

Alexis shook her head in remorse for the victims. It was so saddening when a life was ended early in such gruesome ways. "I know you were looking for one earlier, have you found a connection yet?" she asked as she returned to the photos to the table in front of Beckett.

Kate shook her head as she looked down at the photos and as she did, it made her stomach turn. She was glad that she did not go over to see Will at the scene, she knew now, had she, she would have fallen into Castle's arms much sooner. "What were the victim's names?" Alexis asked.

Rick looked over at Beckett first to see if she was the one who wanted to answer, when she continued to look down at the pictures, he looked up at Alexis. "Kimberly Holtz and Will Sorenson."

Alexis frowned. Why did the second victim's name sound so familiar? She had heard it before, she just could not figure out from where. "Where have I heard the name Sorenson before?" she asked, thinking aloud.

Kate closed her eyes and bit down hard on her bottom lip. When she opened her eyes, again she looked up at Alexis. "He's an old boyfriend of mine."

Alexis looked at Beckett her blue eyes wide and horrorstruck. No wonder Beckett's eyes were puffy when they had walked in through the door a few hours ago. "Oh, Detective Beckett, I'm so sorry, you don't know the other victim too, do you?"

Had it been any other situation, Kate would have smiled at the teenager's brilliance. Between solving the photo album mystery at the prescient a few months back and knowing exactly what questions to ask Kate Beckett had no doubt in her mind that Alexis would make an excellent detective. "Yes, I did, actually, back when she was very young, I used to baby sit her."

At Detective Beckett's words, Alexis felt her eyes grow wide again. "Well, wouldn't that be your connection right there? You _knew_ both of them. He's killing people from your past."

Kate felt her eyes grow wide. With terror coursing through her body, she stood up and looked around for her phone. With her panic growing more intense each second, she spotted it sitting on the kitchen's island. "Dad!" she whispered right before she dashed off to grab it.

Kate fell into a sitting position on her bed in Castle's spare room as she listened to the ringing in her phone. "Come one, Dad, pick up, please pick up!" she whispered into the phone.

Suddenly a voice sounded from the other end of the phone. "You've reached Jim Beckett, I'm not here right now, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message I'll get back to you at my earliest convenience. Thank you and have a great day."

_Damn it!_ she thought as a beep went off signaling that it was time for her to leave a message. "Hey dad, it's Kate, I'm just calling to check to make sure you're all right. Please call me back the minute you get this, it's very important."

Kate dropped the phone on the bed beside her and let her head fall into her hands. Her mind was reeling, should she just stay and pray that everything would be okay or should she take the drive out to Long Island and check on him? Kate shook her head why was she even debating this; she knew what she had to do. She heard a knock on the door just as she opened up the closet. "What is it, Castle?" she called out.

"May I come in?" he asked as he cracked the door open just enough to stick his head through the hole.

Kate looked up at Castle with no expression on her face other than worry and nodded her head.

Rick walked into the room and leaned against the chest of drawers that was across from the bed. "Is your dad all right?" he asked as he tried to meet Beckett's eye.

"I don't know," Kate said as she leaned down and pulled on one of her boots. "I can't get a hold of him, he won't answer his phone."

As Beckett put on her shoes, Rick's eyes wondered over to the little digital clock on the bedside table. 10:52. "Well maybe, he's just asleep, I mean it is eleven o'clock."

Kate shook his head. "No, he always picks up his phone, no matter what time it is. He's not just asleep."

Rick sighed and nodded his head. He should have known there was no comforting her. "Well, you're not going without me," he said as she zipped up her second boot.

Kate sighed as she looked up at Castle. "Thank you very much Castle, but you stay here with Alexis. I can go to Long Island by myself."

Rick felt his eyes widen as Beckett told him where she was going. "Long island? Beckett that's an hour and a half drive!"

Kate looked at Castle with pure determination. There was no way he was going to talk her out of going. "Castle, this is my father. The only thing I have to lose by driving down there is a couple dollars of gas and time. I'd rather go see that he is all right than get a call from the Suffolk County police department tomorrow morning telling me he's been murdered."

Rick looked at Beckett seriously and shook his head. "I'm not saying I don't want you going, Beckett, I'm saying it's an hour and a half drive at eleven o'clock at night, and you _are not going without me_."

Beckett sighed, she was wasting time, she needed to get down to Selden and make sure nothing had happened. "Castle, stay here, go to bed, you've been up since-"

"An hour later than you," Rick said stubbornly. He did not care what her argument was; she was not going to drive three hours at this time of night alone. "You can stand here and argue with me to stay here all night, or you can yell at me for doing something annoying on the way to long island, your choice."

Frustrated Kate ran her fingers through her hair. "Why are you doing this Castle?" she asked hotly as she stood from the bed.

"You'd do the same for me," Rick said in a calm tone as he looked down at the detective. "Tell me you wouldn't."

Kate opened her mouth to prove him wrong, but deep down she knew it would have been a lie. If he were worried about Martha's well being, she wouldn't even give a second thought to jumping in her car and going with him to check on her. "I would, Castle, but it's my job."

Rick smirked as he shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, well, as it is mine."

Kate looked at him incredulously. God, he was so irritating! "Tell me exactly Castle, how this is your job?"

"You're my partner, Beckett, I follow you around everywhere," he said as if it should have been obvious to her. "How else do you expect me to research you?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Castle belongs to ABC**

* * *

As Kate Beckett hurriedly exited the apartment, with Rick Castle close on her heels, she turned the opposite direction of the elevator. Rick frowned as he tried his hardest to keep up with her. "Beckett, where are you going? You know the elevator is the other way!" he called out, quickly losing his breath.

Still continuing her rapid pace, Kate felt herself roll her eyes. Didn't Castle know anything? The elevator always took longer than the stairs, plus she was too anxious to stand around and wait for a machine that would probably go slower just because she was in a hurry. "I'm well aware of where the elevator is, Castle. We're taking the stairs."

Beckett's words made Castle come up short. The stairs! Was she crazy? They were in a penthouse apartment! It was going to take forever to get to the garage. "Why are we taking the stairs?" he asked as he jogged alongside her.

Kate stopped in front of a gray metal door and looked at Castle in his blue eyes before pushing the bar to release the latch and walking through it. "Because I want to, if you'd rather take the elevator you might as well go to bed, because I'm not waiting for you."

"No, no, I'm coming," he said as he hurried down the stairs behind Beckett. He looked around the back stairwell; he had never been back here before. He never had reason to; he didn't pay fifty dollars every month for a gym membership if he was just going to take the stairs at home.

When they reached the garage Kate stopped, the garage was entirely packed. There was no way she was going to find her car as fast as she needed to. Without even thinking she lifted her keys up in the air and hit the panic button on her remote. When she heard it go off she peeked behind her shoulder to make sure Castle was still with her and took off for her car.

Before Rick had even fully caught up with Beckett she was already in her car and was beginning to ignite the engine. He barely made it into his seat and closed the door before Beckett slammed on the gas causing the car to screech out of the parking spot. "Kate…" he said tentatively not knowing what he was going to say to her.

She didn't take her eyes off the windshield as she responded. "Not now, Castle. Let me get on the highway before your incessant chatter begins."

* * *

It was fifteen minutes before Rick Castle pulled his eyes off the lights of the city out the car window and looked at Beckett again. She still had the same worried and stressed look she had on her face when she pulled out of the spot in his apartment. "Kate…" he tried again, not knowing if she'd answer.

Kate took in a breath trying to control the level of anxiety that was building up in her chest. Her father had to be okay, he just had to be. She couldn't lose both parents before she walked down the aisle. That last thought came up so suddenly that she almost hit the break; she had not thought about her wedding since the day they closed Sophie Ronson's case. As she heard Castle speaking she shook her head and briefly turned her eyes to him. "What, Castle?"

"Why is it, do you think, that we don't have a suspect yet?" Rick asked. He'd been thinking the question over from the minute he got in the car. Even when Ryan and Esposito had suspected Dunn, it was thin. Nothing about this guy's M.O. fit Dunn; then again, so far it didn't fit anyone. This guy was a ghost. No one heard him, no one saw him, yet these intolerable acts were committed.

Kate shook her head as she continued to look out the windshield. "I don't know, Castle. We can't seem to catch a break on this one. The only thing we can count on is getting those DNA results back from the lab."

Rick frowned at Beckett's words. He didn't know that DNA had been sent out; he didn't even know there was DNA. He opened his mouth to ask Beckett about it when the answer came to him. Kimberly had been raped, of course there was DNA. "You know I can get them for you in an hour if you'd like me to," he said as he looked at Beckett out of the corner of his eye.

Much to his disappointment she didn't smile at the memory of their first day together. Rick understood though, she was worried. He'd feel the same way had it been his mother who he thought was in danger. Suddenly a melodic melody filled the car followed by a bright light coming from Beckett's cell phone.

As Kate looked over at her phone, which was sitting in a hands free device right above her stereo, relief flooded her body. "Dad!" she said as she hit the talk button on her phone.

"_Hey, Katie, I just got your message. Is everything okay, Sweetheart? You sounded very panicked,_" Jim Beckett said as his voice flooded the car.

Slowly, before answering her father, Kate let out a deep, relieved sigh. _He's okay_, she told herself, _he's okay_. "Dad, haven't you watched the news at all today? There's a serial killer lose in the city. I tried calling your house and your cell phone twice. I was starting to get really worried."

Jim frowned at his daughter's words as he turned down the sheets in his bed. For the life of him, he could not think why she would be worried. "_I'm sorry, sweetheart; I fell asleep on the couch watching my show,_" he was quiet for a minute before he spoke again. "_Why would you be worried, though? I'm nowhere near the city._"

"I know," Kate said as she reduced the speed of her car. "I think that's what worries me the most."

Again Jim frowned. She was keeping something from him, he could tell, she sounded too anxious. "_What is it that you aren't telling me Kate?_"

Kate sighed, what had she gotten her father into? She didn't want him knowing what was going on; she didn't need him worrying about her mental state. "The two victims that he's killed today…" she took a breath before continuing, this was harder to say than she thought it would be. "The first one was Kimmy Holtz, Marie's daughter. The second one was Will…Sorenson."

Jim released a slow sad breath from his nose as he closed his eyes. "_Oh, Kate…_" he was quiet for a moment or two before he spoke up again. "_You know, that certainly does explain why Montgomery put a security detail on my house this evening doesn't it?_"

At her father's words Kate felt her jaw drop. Her father was protected? Anger and relief flooded her body all at once and she let out a deep breath.

Rick who had been fighting to stay quiet the entire time since the phone went off let out an accidental chuckle. "Sorry," he muttered as Beckett looked over at him with fire in her eyes.

"_What was that?_" Jim asked hearing Castle in the seat next to Beckett. "_Are you with someone right now? Did I call you back at a bad time?_"

Kate eyed Castle again before answering her father. "No Dad, it's just Castle. He doesn't know how to stay quiet when somebody is on the telephone. I think it may be due to the fact that he has pathological need for constant attention."

"_So Rick is with you?_" Jim said as he smiled. He wished more than anything that Kate would swallow her pride and just admit to herself that there was a spark between the two of them. "_You need to marry that man already, he's perfect for you and I need grandchildren._"

Kate felt her jaw drop open in embarrassment as Castle cracked up beside her. What was wrong with her father? Did he not know that he was on speaker phone? Surely he had to. "Okay, Dad, you're safe, you're protected. Great, I'm going to go; I'll see you soon though. Love you. Bye."

"_Love you too, Katie,_" she heard as her finger pressed the red end button.

As Beckett turned her eyes back onto to the road in front of them Rick looked at him with a smug and satisfied smile on his face. He could not believe he just heard what Jim had said to his daughter. "I guess your dad likes me, huh?"

As Kate got on the exit ramp she glared at Castle out of the corner of her eye. Why were all the men in her life driving her insane tonight? "He was half asleep when he called, I don't think he knew what he was saying."

Beckett's argument made Castle smile even more. "I don't know Beckett; he sounded pretty lucid to me."

* * *

As Rick and Kate approached the front door to the apartment Kate placed her hand against the wall and closed her eyes. "I am so tired," she said as Castle unlocked the door.

As Rick got it unlocked and they walked through the door he looked over at Beckett and smiled. "I can't imagine why. It's not like you've been awake since three a.m. and had a stressful day or anything," he said as they walked down the hallway to their respective bedrooms.

A smile found its way across Kate's face. She was so thankful that her father was all right, that the psychopath hadn't gotten to him before protection had been put on him. She'd have to thank Montgomery tomorrow after she was finished yelling at him for not telling her in the first place. Now wasn't the time to think about that though. "Thank you Castle, I really appreciate it."

Rick frowned at Beckett. What was she thanking him for; he hadn't done anything this time. "For what?"

Kate shook her head causing a piece of hair to fall into her eyes. "For going with me just now, keeping your head when I was losing mine; just for everything today."

Rick smiled as he took a step closer to Beckett. "You're welcome," he said as he reached his hand forward and with two fingers moved the hair out of Kate's eyes. When the hair was in place he slowly ran his fingers down the side of her face and much to his surprise Beckett's eyes slid closed. As he reached her chin her eyes slid back open and she looked up at Rick through her eyelashes. An unsure smile found its way to Rick's lips as he leaned ever so slightly forward.

When she realized what was going on Kate took a step back from Castle. What was she doing? Her and Castle didn't act like this! As she backed up Castle stood up straight and she thought she saw his face flush red in embarrassment for a millisecond. Kate could read the raw emotion on his face, disappointment. But she knew something about this, right here, right now, wasn't right. "Goodnight, Rick," she said as she opened her bedroom door and disappeared behind it.

As Rick watched her disappear into the darkness he felt a mix of emotions. He felt stupid, he should have never tried to kiss her, he should have known better. Yet something inside him was also joyful. "Goodnight, _Rick_" she had said, not Castle. Despite his rejection he felt a small smile creep across his face. "Goodnight, Kate."

* * *

The next morning when Rick woke up he knew something was off. As he looked around the room everything seemed to be in place but something was also missing. As he got out of bed and he heard his feet hit the soft carpeting of his bedroom floor that was when he realized what it was. His apartment was totally, and completely silent. He stood in the middle of his bedroom taking in the silence for a moment. In almost seventeen years he had not known what it was like to wake up to nothing but the sound of his own breathing. As he padded to his bedroom door a thought struck him, it shouldn't be silent in his house, because he was not the only one who should still be here. "Beckett?" he called as he walked down the hallway leading to the kitchen.

There was no answer, there was no way she could still be asleep could there? He squinted at the clock that was on the cable box on top of the television. 7:30. No, there was no way she was still asleep. The only time he knew her to sleep later than seven was when she did not have a case to be working on, and she certainly did have a case. With a sigh of regret he realized that she had probably went off to the prescient without him.

He had known last night as he was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep that things would more than likely be awkward between them for at least a day because of what he tried to do. He never thought that she would leave without him though. Shaking his head he turned around and headed back into his bedroom to shower; if she was going to leave without telling him, then he was just going to show up at the prescient without telling her.

As he finished getting dressed he looked at himself in the mirror. Sadness covered his face, how was he supposed to explain this to guys? He knew he could always say that the case had him down; he was a good enough liar to pull it off, but he knew they still wouldn't buy it. Cases never got him down and Ryan and Esposito both knew that. With a shake of his head Rick walked away from the mirror and grabbed his wallet on his dresser as he walked out his bedroom door.

As he got to the end of the hallway he stopped short. There standing behind the counter in the kitchen was Kate Beckett. He stared at her for a minute to make sure he was not just imagining things.

As Kate poured herself a cup of coffee she felt as if someone was staring at her. As she lifted her eyes off the mug in front of her she saw Castle standing there just staring at her and she jumped. "Castle! What are you doing?"

Rick shook his head as he approached the counter and took a seat in one of the barstools. "Have you been here the whole time?" he asked, still confused.

"Yes…" Kate said looking at Castle strangely. "Where else would I have gone?" she asked as she rounded the counter and took a seat next to Castle.

Rick looked down at the counter embarrassed. He had been so foolish; of course she wouldn't leave without him. He shrugged before he went on, "Well, when I got up you were nowhere around so I thought…"

"You thought I left without you?" Kate said as she snickered. "No, Castle. I am very much still here, I stepped outside a couple of minutes ago, Lanie called, and I get better reception on the back patio."

At Lanie's name Rick's head popped up. "Lanie called?" he said his eyes wide as a five year old's in a toy store. "Do they have the results for the DNA?"

Kate shook her head as she swished her coffee around in a mug. "No, the results for the DNA test won't be in for another day at least."

Rick opened his mouth to offer his connections once again, but decided against it. If Beckett wanted him to call up the mayor and ask him to hurry the process along then she would have jumped on the opportunity last night. "If it wasn't about the DNA, then what was the call about?" Rick asked curiously.

Kate smirked as she placed her mug on the counter and leaned in close to Castle. "What if I told you, our conversation was about you," she said tauntingly.

Rick felt his jaw fall open slightly. She was talking about him, to Lanie? "Really?" he asked in excited disbelief.

"Sucker," Kate said giggling as she finished off her coffee. The smile on her face grew as she watched the expression on Castle's face fall from excited to a faux sadness. "It wasn't the DNA that she got back," she bit her bottom lip before continuing. "But she did find a fingerprint, on the rope, from Kimberly's crime scene."

* * *

When Kate and Rick arrived at the morgue the smell of formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol greeted them at the door along with Dr. Sidney Perlmutter. "Good morning, Dr. Perlmutter, haven't seen you in a while," Rick said with a smile in his voice to the medical examiner.

Sidney looked up from a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant he was eating. He nodded at Beckett before looking up at Castle. "Tell me Castle, what exactly is good about this morning?" he asked with a full mouth.

Rick shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you're not the one on the slab this morning. That would definitely make my day good."

"Castle!" Kate said and shook her head at him when he looked over. "We're here to see Dr. Parrish. She's not with anyone, is she?"

Sidney shook his head as he took another bite out of his croissant. "No, we've had a pretty slow morning so far."

At Perlmutter's words Kate thankfully closed her eyes. She wouldn't dare think it but maybe, maybe the killer had done all he had set out to do. Then the memory of the message on the wall of Will's house came back to her. _How many must die before you catch me Nikki?_ A sickening feeling filled her gut, just as it did at the crime scene yesterday. "Thank you," she said and led the way into the examination room that she spied Lanie in.

When Castle and Beckett entered the room Lanie Parrish looked up and smiled at the two. They were always together. It wouldn't have surprised Lanie if after Castle had finished the Nikki Heat series he became a cop. "Hey heard you two were roomies this week."

Kate raised her eyebrows at her friend, how could she be accusing her and Castle that something could be going on when things were much more obvious between her and Esposito. "Really? You didn't hear that from your bedmate, did you?"

Lanie pursed her lips and walked over to a computer, passing by the slab with a magnifying glass hovering over a rope. "So that first finger print I told you that I found on the rope, I took a closer look after we hung up, the same fingerprints are all up and down the rope. So I ran them through the system. We got a match, they belong to a Scott Hill."

"Scott Hill?" Rick asked amazed as he looked at Lanie and Beckett. When it showed that neither of them understood the name like he did he realized he had to explain. "Beckett, Esposito told me that Ashley, Kimberly's roommate, had a 'buddy'," he said as he made air quotes around the word. "She told him that his name was Scott Hill."


	8. Chapter 8

**As always Castle belongs to ABC. Sorry this one took me so long to update. I was having some trouble making the interrogation scene feel "Beckett-like" **

* * *

When Rick Castle and Kate Beckett stepped out of the morgue and into the bright sunlight of the early afternoon Kate pulled out her phone and hit speed dial four and put the phone up to her ear. It rang twice before a voice on the other end picked up.

"_Esposito._"

. "Esposito, I need you to find a Scott Hill and bring him in; he's a possible suspect in our case," Beckett said as her and Rick walked down the sidewalk toward the street, where she had parked her car.

Back at the prescient Esposito nodded his head, but then paused mid nod. He knew that name, but where had he heard it? That was when he heard Ashley's voice in his head reminding him of who he was. "_Scott Hill? But isn't that-_"

"Kimberly's boyfriend? Yes. We found his prints on the rope that Ashley was found hanging from this morning," Kate said as her and Castle got into the car.

"_okay, no problem, we'll get right on it,_" Esposito said and without waiting to hear Beckett's thanks in the phone, pulled it away and put it back in its home.

* * *

By the time Richard Castle and Kate Beckett arrived back at the prescient Scott Hill was already in custody and waiting in the interrogation room. As Kate stepped into the observation room she spied Castle standing by the glass staring at the young man through it.

As Rick heard the door open he looked away from the suspect and his eyes landed on his muse as she walked through the door. "Beckett, I don't know if we have the right guy," he said as she came up next to him and looked at her suspect.

"We do," Kate replied as she nodded her head. Yes, she was sure. Everything was right about him; his age, his whereabouts, even the overall look about him. He was exactly the type of guy she could have seen Kimberly with.

Rick shook his head. He couldn't believe that the person they had sitting behind the glass was the one causing so much mayhem in New York City. He just didn't seem as if life had hardened him enough to do what had been done. "He's just so young."

Kate shrugged her shoulders; she had arrested kids younger than him for murder before. For a second her mind went back to Brandon, a seventeen-year-old prep school kid who killed one of his best friends to win his girl. "Yeah, he looks young, until he tries to date your daughter," Kate said and smirked at Castle.

"Can we leave my daughter out of this please?" Rick said as he looked over at Beckett. As their eyes locked that familiar tingly feeling presented itself in his gut again and his memory went back to the night before and he yanked his eyes away from her before he made a fool of himself again. "Um, Beckett, you don't really think it's him, do you?," Rick said as he cleared his throat.

Kate looked at Castle seriously. There was something in the way that he said that, that sounded as if he already believed Hill to be innocent. "It doesn't matter what I think, Castle. Evidence speaks; his prints were found on the murder weapon, smoking gun.

Rick was silent for a moment as he shook his head.

Kate frowned at Castle. There weren't many times when she wished she could read Castle's mind, but the look on his face at that moment made her want to know what was going through his head more than anything in the world. "What makes you ask?"

Rick shrugged. It was a simple answer, but like simple answers they were not exactly the most obvious. "Just that he confirmed that he knew Kimberly to Esposito, but he has no idea who Will is, and unless he's a world class sociopath, which he judging by the blank look on his face right now, I'm guessing he's not, he wouldn't have killed him. And we have evidence that the two cases are connected."

* * *

When Castle opened the door and Kate walked in she saw Scott Hill rise from his chair. As Kate looked at him she recognized the mask of fear that she had so often seen on her suspects. "Mr. Hill, my name is Kate Beckett, do you know why you are here?" she said as she stood across the table from him.

"No," he said as he shook his head. He had no idea why he was here. He was next to positive he had done nothing wrong, but then why bring him in if he was innocent?

Kate nodded her head as she sat down across the table from him. She knew he was going to answer like that; it wasn't as if he was going to confess to the murder with a single question. No, if she was going to get a confession, she was going to have to trick it out of him. "Do you know this girl?" she asked as she slid a picture of Kimberly toward him.

The fear that masked Scott's face a second before now dissolved into a mask of confusion. Of course he knew who Kimberly was; he had been in love with her since grade school. "Yeah, Kimberly Holtz," he said as he sat back easily in his chair. He smirked as he looked the pretty detective in the eye. "She must have done something pretty bad this time for you coppers to pull me in here, what was it?

Kate looked at the cocky expression across the young face of the man in front of her. She had seen that expression before, and it irritated her as much now as the first time she had seen it, across Castle's face. Swallowing she continued. "Can you tell me, Mr. Hill, what was the nature of your and Ms. Holtz's relationship?"

The arrogance faded from his face as Scott shrugged. He hated the idea of what Kimmy and he had become and he hated even more thinking about it. "She was my ex-girlfriend….for lack of a better word." Why did what their relationship became matter, did she need an alibi or something? "Why do you ask?"

Beckett was quiet for a moment to long as she looked down at the picture across the table. This had to be hard for her, investigating a murder of a childhood friend. Rick took her silence as his time to come in. "Because she was raped and murdered yesterday morning."

At Castle's words Scott looked up at the man in horror. Kim was dead? No, she couldn't be not his Kim. "Kimberly's dead?" he asked with fear in his voice as he looked at the detective for conformation.

Kate looked at the young man feeling pity for him but not allowing her face to show it. There was always a chance that he could be faking it to look more innocent. "Yes," she said as she looked away from the suspect in front of her.

"No," Scott said shaking his head violently. "No, that's impossible! I just spoke to her two days ago, she was perfectly fine!"

At his words Kate looked back at him, anger suddenly apparent in her body. "Yes, two days ago she was perfectly fine, until you killed her," she said as she waited for Scott to respond to the accusation.

Just like Beckett had expected a look of shock took over the grief that had found a home on Scott Hill's face as soon as she had delivered the news. "_I_ killed her? No, there's been a mistake!"

"Really?" Kate said as she sat back and folded her arms. "If it was a mistake then would you like to explain to me how your prints got _all over_ the murder weapon?"

Scott looked up at the detective with anger seeping through every pore in his skin. He was being framed, he had to have been. "Detective, I would never kill Kim, I loved her!"

"Why end it if you loved her so much?" Rick asked as he looked at man in suspect's chair.

Scott looked up at the man leaning against the wall with hate in his eyes. "I didn't end it, she's the one who left me. She wanted free reign to do what and who she pleased."

Kate raised her eyebrows. "I bet that made you mad, didn't it? You loving someone so much, and all she wants to do is be with someone else?"

"Yeah, it made me mad detective," Scott said as he looked at her seriously. He had watched _CSI_, he knew how cops worked, and he knew where they were going with this. "But I didn't kill her."

Rick shook his head at the man on the suspect side of the table. "Oh, no, you didn't kill her, you just raped her and then hung her up in a tree to dry, right?"

At Castle's words the color drained out of Scott's face. He looked at Beckett with glassy eyes. "Is that how you found her? Hung from a tree?"

"Yeah," Kate said as she raised her eyebrows and nodded her head.

Scott closed his eyes and shook his head. "So a rope was the murder weapon?"

Again the detective nodded her head as if the answer would be obvious. "Yeah. Why does that mean anything to you?

They were accusing him of murder because his fingerprints were on a rope that belonged to his old girlfriend? "Detective," he began solemnly, "Kimberly and I were crazy when we got together, she liked to role play. Her favorite was to be kidnapped and tied up. Bondage was a turn on for her. That rope you found, was because of that."

"You liked to play?" Rick asked from his corner of the room. He waited for Scott to nod his head questioningly before he stood up straight and walked over to him. "Tell me, Scott, is it possible, that you wanted to play one night, but she didn't want to? You didn't understand; things always went like this before. Why didn't she want to sleep with you now? Then, you decide well she doesn't really need to have a choice, you can do it anyway, tie her up satisfy yourself, I mean you had done it many times in the past for pretend; why not do it for real now? So you rape her. Then after you do, you realize she's going to go to the cops, and you're going to go to jail. You can't have that happen, so what do you do, you strangle her to death and hang her with a rope making it look as if she killed herself."

By the end of Castle's theory Scott was shaking his head so hard that his features were blurring to them around him. "No! I didn't do it! I didn't kill her!"

Kate looked at the young man in front of her. "Mr. Hill where were you Saturday night between the hours of one a.m. to three a.m.?"

Now they were asking for his alibi! Why wouldn't they just believe him, couldn't they tell he wasn't lying? "I was in Newark. My band and I had a gig. I invited Kimberly, and her roommate Ashley, but Ashley was the only one who came. Kim said she already had plans with her mother to go to dinner."

"Really?" Rick asked as he raised his eyebrows at Scott. "A gig, that's a pretty good cover. Where did you guys play?"

Scott shook his head. The only thought that was going through his head right now was how ridiculous this all was, he had done nothing wrong…well almost nothing. "A little private owned bar and club, has a hotel upstairs, it's called Henry's."

Kate nodded her head. She had heard of Henry's before, when she was in high school her and her friends used to drive down there a couple of times a month because the bartender would get them alcohol without even bothering to ask for an ID. "What time did your set end?"

Scott shrugged as he shook his head. "I don't remember exactly. It was about one, one thirty maybe. Somewhere in that timeline."

"you know the M.E. who looked over the body placed her time of death between two and three a.m. that time of night the drive wouldn't have taken you more than a half hour. You would have had plenty of time to drive there and back to secure your alibi that you were there for the night."

"Listen, not only would I not waste the gas to do that, I wouldn't kill Kimberly! After the gig was over I got a few drinks at the bar and I went to bed."

"Really? Is there anyone who can corroborate that?" Kate asked she looked into the eyes of the man in front of her.

At her question Scott closed his eyes. "Yes, actually there is," he was quiet for a minute before he looked up at Kate again. "Ashley, Ashley Moore."

As the words exited Scott Hill's mouth Kate and Rick both looked at each other with the same expression, wide eyed and jaw dropped.

* * *

"Yo, Beckett!" Esposito called as he walked up to her desk. "Just got off the phone with the roommate. She vouches for him, says they had a couple of drinks and spent the night together," he said as he shook his head.

Kate placed her face in her palm and shook her head. They had no suspect and they were back to square one. If they didn't find someone else soon they FBI were going to claim jurisdiction over this case, just like they did with Scott Dunn's.

Rick frowned as he look at the disappointed look on Beckett's face and went over the words that Esposito had just said again in his head. "How do we know that she's just not covering for her friend?" at his words Beckett looked up at him with a small glimmer of hope in her eye.

"I thought the same thing," Kevin said as he walked over to the other three detectives. "So I decided to call the bar. The bartender said he had gotten three complaints about how a couple couldn't make it to their room to have such a passionate embrace."

Kate shook her head. Of course he was a bust, deep down she had known it all along. He had no connection to Will, Nikki Heat, or her. If it wasn't him though, who could it be? Shaking her head Kate looked up at Esposito. "Let him go."

* * *

It was dark in her bedroom that night when Kate Beckett sat up in her bed with wide eyes once again awoken by the dream. The moon, which had shined in the room the past two nights she had spent at Castle's place, was hidden. She listened to the rain pattering on the rooftop above her head as she waited for her heart to return back to a normal pace. The only light in the room was emitting from the digital clock on the bedside table. Everything was silent, but the apartment was supposed to be silent, it was five o'clock in the morning. Something was wrong though, the silence that surrounded her wasn't the normal nighttime silence. Everything was too still. Slowly Kate scanned the room with her eyes looking for anything to out of the ordinary. Nothing was.

Shaking her head she realized she was just being ridiculous. They were safe, no one was going to get in, the building was protected by twenty four hour surveillance. Nothing was going to get them. As Kate settled back into a laying position she slipped her hand under her pillow to grasp her gun for assurance. As she felt only sheets under her hand her heart stopped. Her gun was gone. It couldn't have fell, she would have heard that and it would have certainly woken her up faster than that dream that she had did.

Kate frowned for a second. She hadn't forgotten to put it under there did she? No, she wouldn't have been foolish enough to leave it in the drawer next to her. Just in case, she rolled over on her stomach and went to reach for the drawer. However, just as she did, she felt a large hand cover her mouth and the cold steel of a barrel of a gun rest against her temple.


	9. Chapter 9

**First off, Castle belongs to ABC. Secondly, sorry this took so long to update, I got a little stuck, so let me know how you guys think it turned out.**

* * *

Fear gripped Kate Beckett as she felt her attacker climb on the bed and straddle her back. By the amount of how the mattress sagged by the added weight she could tell her attacker was a man, and he was large. _Well that certainly rules out Castle_, she found herself thinking sarcastically in the midst of being a hostage. Her thoughts amazed her sometimes. As he hunched over her shoulder she could hear his deep breathing in her ear. "Hello, Nikki. It's been a while since we have seen each other, hasn't it?"

Kate listened to the man's horrid voice in her ear, trying her damnedest to recognize the voice. It was a meaningless effort though; the robotic sound of his voice led her to realize that he was using a voice disguiser. As the man finished his words Kate tried thrashing underneath him, but as she moved his legs became tighter at her sides. "Uh, uh, uh, Nikki," he warned. "No, my sweet, you are not going anywhere."

Kate's head screamed at her to be petrified. Fear was a normal response to what she was dealing with right now. However, the only fear that she had was not for her own well being but for the other two defenseless occupants of the apartment. "I'm not here to hurt anybody, Detective, just to convey warning, a deal if you will. I will give you one more, full day of no murders; to figure out who I am and catch me. Know this, if you fail, the others who die their blood will be on your hands." And with that the man knocked Kate upside the head with the heel of his palm, causing her to fall down against her pillows, for a second, unable to move.

As she watched him run out of the room Kate forced herself to move. As her feet hit the carpeting and she stood up she stumbled, disoriented, as she chased him out of the room. Down the dark hallway she ran gaining on him just enough to keep him in her sights but too far away for her to catch him. She followed him as he ran out of the apartment and down the hall. Kate smirked as she recognized the path that he was taking. It was the one to the elevators. He was going to have to wait for one, he was trapped. She was going to catch him, and be victorious; no one else she loved was going to die.

Her spirits rose as she pushed herself to go faster. Whoever this man was there was no way he was going to be able to outrun her for long. As Kate neared the elevators she stumbled and looked down at her bare feet when she looked up again she started at the elevators in horror. He was gone. How was this possible? She had only lost sight of him for a second, and yet, here she was standing in the middle of a hallway facing in the elevators, clad in nothing but an oversized shirt. She looked helplessly down each side of the hallway once more, just to make sure he wasn't hiding. Not that much could hide a man that size. He wasn't, she decided.

Kate was about to turn around and head back to the apartment to check on Castle and Alexis, make sure they were still alive and unharmed, when an idea struck her. _Try the elevators_. Confidence again surging up in her Kate took a step forward toward the buttons and hit each one. As if playing a musical round each elevator door opened after the other, and as the last one opened the first one closed. Kate closed her eyes in disappointment as each one of them turned up empty. However, something inside of her was not surprised; it would have been too easy. With a heavy heart Kate turned around and headed back to the apartment.

At five fifteen in the morning Richard Castle faintly heard the door of his bedroom slam against the door stopper that was on the wall. Even though his mind was telling him to open his eyes and sit up he was enjoying his deep sleep far too much for that. It wasn't long, though, before his enjoyable slumber was shattered entirely.

"Castle!" Kate called to him, not hiding the worry that was in her voice. _Be alive, please be alive! _She begged as she entered Richard Castle's dark bedroom. Had this been under normal circumstances, she would have looked around the bedroom of her favorite author. Truth be told, if they were under normal circumstances she wouldn't have been entering his room.

Hearing Kate Beckett's voice Rick sat up and opened his eyes almost simultaneously. as he looked at her he felt his eyes widen. What in the world was the woman doing? She entered his bedroom dressed in nothing but a large oversized t-shirt. If she was attempting to seduce him, she wouldn't have to work very hard at it. As she walked over to his bed he took in the long legs that he had very rarely seen. However, as she neared him that idea faded from his head. As he looked at her he noticed her face was a ghostly white. It wasn't always was like that, was it? No. He should have known something was wrong that was the only time she would dare enter his room half naked… sadly. "Beckett, what's wrong?" he asked as he covered his bare torso with the sheets around him.

Kate sighed a great sigh of relief as she looked into the concerned, ruggedly handsome, and very much alive face of Richard Castle. When she opened her mouth to convey the details of the last ten minutes Kate felt her resolve rapidly cracking around her. "I-I just wanted to check to make sure you were all right."

Rick frowned at her. Why would she be wondering about his well being, he was fine. In fact he was more than fine, he had a beautiful, half dressed, woman of his dreams standing in front of his bed. He was tired, but other than that he was as close to perfect as he could achieve. Rick looked at her strangely. Something had to have happened, that was the only explanation to the situation he was in right now "Do I detect actual concern for my well being, Detective?" he asked as he looked up at her.

Kate closed her eyes and inhaled, then exhaled, deeply. Why did Castle have to make everything a joke? Now of all times she needed him to be serious, he was potentially in a life threatening situation and all he could think about was flirting with her. As flattering as it was, she needed him to focus right now more than anything.

As Rick watched her close her eyes he realized this was not the time to be messing with Beckett's patience level. Something had seriously rattled her. "Here, sit down," he said as he moved over to the center of his bed.

As Beckett sat down on his bed Rick put a hand to her back and realized something he could not see in the dark of his bedroom. The strong, independent woman Rick had grown to know and love was sitting on the corner of his bed involuntarily shaking in fright. "Kate what's wrong?" he asked thoroughly alarmed as he moved to look her in the face.

As Castle placed his hand on her back a sense of overwhelming calm coursed through Kate's body. It still amazed her how much a man who could drive her so crazy could turn around and bring her to such a level of serenity. With all seriousness she looked into the shadowy face of Richard Castle. "I want you, Alexis and Martha to get on the earliest available flight out of the city. Go somewhere far away. Go to California, and visit Meredith; go to the Hamptons and lay on the beach. I don't care where you go, but for once in your life Rick, listen to me."

Rick looked at Beckett with a dropped jaw. She wanted him to leave? She couldn't believe he was in that much danger. She was just being silly now. "Beckett, no. you're being ridiculous, I'm not leaving you."

Kate closed her eyes; she could feel the agitation building up in her chest. Why did he have to fight everything she said? Didn't he remember what happened last time that he stayed when he told her to leave? "Castle, you need to."

Rick frowned at her. What the hell was she talking about she needed to leave? He wasn't going anywhere. He was as much part of this case as she was and he was not throwing the towel in and leaving her unprotected. "Why?" he asked defiant.

Kate opened her hazel eyes and looked into Castle's dark face. "Because, it's not safe for you to stay in your apartment, or even in the city." With the confused look on Castle's face as Kate spoke she realized he was not going to listen to her just based her words, but then again, when did he? "Our killer, he knows where you live. He paid me a visit not too long ago, in your mother's bedroom."

As Beckett spoke Castle felt his blue eyes widen in terror. The killer had been in his house, in the same room Beckett was sleeping in. he refused to let it show through his face but fear gripped his insides, he could have killed her. Beckett and his daughter. With the fear intensifying he realized he did not know yet about his daughter's well being. "Alexis!" he said as he went to get out of bed.

Before he moved far though, Kate placed a hand over his own and as she did the familiar feeling of nerves crept through her body just like it every time she touched him. Ignoring the different kind of fear Kate looked into Castle's eyes. "She's fine. I checked on her before I came to you," she said as she looked down at her lap and then back up at Castle. "She knows what happened, and she's packing."

Rick looked at Beckett strangely. He still couldn't figure out why she was doing this. It made no sense. "Kate," he took a breath. "I'll leave the city on one condition," he said and waited for her to respond.

A condition, of course there would be a condition. Because simply just listening to her warning and doing what she said would be far too easy for Richard Castle. No, with him everything had to be more difficult. "What kind of condition?" she asked skeptical.

"I have no problem sending my mother and Alexis to California to see Meredith. It would be nice to be rid of one of them for a few days. As for me, I'm not leaving without you."

Kate Beckett laid her head back against the wall of the police station's elevator with her eyes closed. She was alone; strange as it was Castle had given in to the argument about going to California. It probably was because Alexis threatened not to go if he didn't. She didn't know; it didn't matter much how she got him to get on that plane, all that mattered was that he did. As the elevator pinged, signaling Kate that she had reached the homicide department, she opened her eyes and stood up straight. As the heavy metal doors opened up they revealed the bullpen, buzzing with activity.

Kate stepped out of the elevator and began to make her way to her desk. As she walked she looked around, something was different. Nothing seemed to be out of place though; nothing was rearranged and there was no redecoration that she took notice of. She couldn't place what the change was until she stepped into the busy bull pen. Two of the normally empty offices were being occupied. As she walked through the maze of desks to get to her own, Kate scanned the offices.

In the first she noticed Detective Ortiz sitting across from a woman in her late fifties to early sixties and a younger woman in her mid twenties. As Kate got closer to the office she noticed that the two women were Marie Holtz, Kimberly's mother, and Ashley Moore, her roommate. On the table sitting in front of them was a sketch of the man. Kate felt her lips part in shock. How did they have a sketch? Neither of them was in the proximity during the time of the murder.

Frowning in confusion, Kate made her way past the first office and her eyes fell on the second office. Detective Castillo was talking to two more people she recognized. Isabelle Wilder, Will's Fiancé, and Will's best friend and partner, Tyler Whitley, were both seated across from the detective with a sketch, too, lying on the table in front of them.

Kate frowned as she neared her desk. Two identical sketches, there had to be an informant somewhere, but who was it? As she took a seat at her desk Kate looked up and a possible answer appeared in front of her eyes. Sitting at his desk with an older woman, which Kate had seen in Will's neighborhood a time or two when they were together, was Captain Montgomery. Could the woman have seen something when the murderer had so meticulously tried to hide his identity? When Kate sat down at her desk it was not long before she heard two pairs of male feet heading over to her.

"Now either my clock stopped working or you're really late," Kevin said as Kate looked up at him with tired eyes. As he saw her eyes pity filled the detective, Castle had called and let both him and Esposito know what happened and gave them strict orders to watch out for her closely.

"So where is your shadow today?" Javier asked as he looked down at Beckett. They were living together for now, so why wasn't Castle with her? When he asked Castle earlier why he wouldn't be able to watch out for Beckett like he had asked him and Ryan to do, he evaded the answer. "He isn't by any chance taking the day off today is he?"

Kate shook her head as she looked down at the closed case file upon her desk. "No," she said gravely as she picked at the side of her thumb nail. She was quiet for a minute, not realizing how hard to was going to be to tell people she had sent away her partner so she could ensure his protection.

Kevin frowned as he looked at Beckett. Something was wrong. For the past year and a half Castle was at Beckett's side every single morning, and never had he told anyone to watch out for Beckett, she could take care of herself, everybody knew that."Where is he then?" he asked fearing the answer.

Kate closed her eyes and sighed before opening them up again. "He's in California with his mother and daughter," she said as she watched the two boys exchange shocked glances. Had she been in a better mood she would have smiled at how acutely their facial expressions matched their thoughts.

Castle was going to visit the "Deep Fried Twinkie" and Beckett took him to the airport? Was she trying to push him away from her? "How are you dealing with that one?" Javier said as he looked seriously up at Beckett.

Kate frowned as she watched her two partners in front of her react to the news. Of course she wasn't okay with it; she was basically sending Castle, into Meredith's arms. What could she say though? She was not about to admit her feelings to the men, especially when she hadn't even admitted them fully to herself. Looking at Esposito just as seriously as he looked at her she asked, "Fine," she said shortly. "So, where are we on the case?"

A smile shone across both his and Ryan's face as Javier looked down at Beckett, he knew it was not going to make her smile, especially after sending Castle away, but it would significantly improve things. "This morning, after Montgomery briefed us on what happened last night, Ryan and I went back to the crime scenes and tried asking the neighbors questions again. You know see if we missed anything the first time."

Kate looked at Esposito with raised eyebrows waiting for him to continue. When he didn't it became obvious that he wanted her to say something. "And did you?"

Kevin nodded his head. "Oh, yes. Mrs. Levy from house number 183 remembered seeing a beefy man dressed in a black hoodie and dark blue jeans passing by the house about a half hour before she saw the flames."

Kate frowned at the detectives in front of her. "'A big guy in a black sweatshirt' that is the only description that she gave?" she said as she watched Ryan and Esposito look at each other and shrug.

Javier nodded his head. "Yeah, but apparently she gave a better description to the sketch artist, because we got a picture," he said as he grabbed a sketch off one of the desks nearby and handed it to Beckett.

When Kate laid her eyes on the picture in front of her she closed her eyes in disappointment. Like Mrs. Levy had said, the man in the sketch had a large beefy face and covering the space around his cruel mouth and heavy jaw was the evidence of a five o'clock shadow. However, the rest of the sketch was blackened in as the hood of his sweatshirt covered his face. How in the world were they supposed to catch this man by the end of the day if all they had was half a picture? Kate looked up from the picture to the two detectives standing in front of her. "Of all the people who passed by Will's house that day, what made her remember him?"

Javier looked down at Beckett. "We asked her the same question, she said it wasn't that he was just passing by Sorenson's house, it was as if he was appraising it. You know standing out front staring at it, walking around the back, looking in the windows."

"Which she thought was odd because she knew Sorenson was not even considering putting his house on the market. She said he had told her when he and Isabelle got marri-ouch!" Kevin said as he looked over at Esposito wondering why he had just stomped on his foot. That was when he caught sight of Beckett, the color had drained from her face and she was sitting in front of them with her eyes closed, in pain. Desperately he scoured his brain in search of something to say to take Beckett's mind off of what he had just reminded her. "So…I was thinking, maybe we should start looking through mug shot books, try and see if we can find anything remotely close to the sketch…" Kevin said as both Esposito and Beckett looked over at him and frowned.

"Bro, do you have any idea how many pictures are in those mug shot books?" Javier said as he looked dumbfounded at his partner.

Kate sighed as Ryan gave his suggestion. Had they not been face to face with a serial killer and pressed for time it may have been a good place to start but they barely had twelve hours. "Ryan, it would take a week to go through all those books, we just don't have that kind of time.

Kevin looked from Esposito to Beckett and noticed both were looking at him with the same expression of incredulousness written across their faces. "I know," he said nodding his head, "but maybe, because the killer is targeting you, we could start with the ones you put away."

Kevin watched as Beckett and Esposito looked at each other and the looks of unbelief disappeared from their faces. "That…actually, isn't a terrible idea."


	10. Chapter 10

**Castle belongs to ABC not to me.**

**A little side note though, I kind of changed the "when" of this story, I don't know if anyone realized, but it's now taking place in present time, but I am leaving out the part where Chet died for two reasons, 1. Martha is going to need a place to live when they get back from California and Beckett is staying in her room right now. 2. I think it was pointless to kill off a faceless character in the first place, unless his death is important, idk yet, if it ends up being, well we'll just see where I go from there.**

* * *

Kate Beckett closed the last of the mug shot books and sighed in exasperation as she looked at the overwhelming pile of suspects that her, and detectives Ryan and Esposito had spent the last three hours accumulating. As Kate continued to stare at the pile in front of her she felt a gnawing begin in the pit of her stomach. Between the three of them there were at least twenty suspects on the table, how were they supposed to locate, catch up with, and interrogate twenty men before the end of the day?

At the sound of the book closing Kevin lifted his eyes from the pictures in front of him. Of course, Beckett would have finished first. Although she was finished going through her pictures she did not raise her eyes from the table. Instead, she began going through the men she had selected trying to narrow them down even further. As Detective Kevin Ryan continued to watch the woman in front of him he noticed something in her eyes that he hadn't seen since Castle had returned from the Hamptons, misery. Although she played the façade of being constantly annoyed by her partner, Kate Beckett truly did miss him when he was not there, even he could tell that.

When Kate no longer heard the pages of the mug book pictures turning she looked up to see the two male detectives staring at her. Had she been crying and not realized it? no, impossible, she was far too strong to cry over mug shots, even if every blue eyed man she looked over made her see Castle's face. Ignoring their stares she looked straight at them. "Okay, so we're looking for someone with a violent felony conviction. Also look for someone who was convicted of arson and sexual assault. We find those three together then there obviously are our suspects."

At five o'clock that evening Kate Beckett sat at her desk with her forehead in her hands and her eyes closed. The every detective at the twelfth was out scouring the city for the list of ten suspects, that we not still incarcerated, that Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito had come up with earlier that afternoon. Kate lifted her head and stared at the desktop of her computer screen. How she wished Captain Montgomery had not sentenced her, and the boys, to stay here and interrogate; she would have preferred so much more to be out on the streets with the other cops. If nothing else it would have least kept her mind busy.

As Javier walked out of the interrogation room his eyes scanned the now empty bullpen and found Detective Kate Beckett sitting at her desk with a solemn expression on her face as her hazel eyes switched from her black plastic phone on her desk to the clock at the bottom right hand corner of her computer screen. With a sigh he walked over to her and fell into the "Castle" chair.

As Esposito fell into the chair beside her Kate looked up in alarmed wonderment. After looking at him for a second she raised her eyebrow. "Do you no longer have a desk of your own?"

Ignoring her question Javier looked at Beckett in her pretty face. At that moment he realized how it was Beckett was able to toast both him and Ryan in every poker game they played. For just a second ago the raw emotion her face showed how much this case was actually affecting her. Now, though, in its place, was a mask. "He still hasn't called has he?"

Kate sighed, frustrated. No, of course Castle hadn't called yet. For if he had that would have meant that he thought of someone else, rather than himself, for two seconds. Again Kate sighed, realizing she was being unfair, no he hadn't called. Then again, she hadn't asked or told him to either; Kate had just figured it would be common decency. She could not tell any of this to Esposito though, he was already suspicious to her feelings for Castle and she did not need her resentment toward the author for not calling to confirm his theory. A hasty, "No," was all she responded with.

When Javier saw a hazel tinted glimpse of the war of emotions flicker inside Beckett's eyes he regretted bringing up Castle. At that moment he felt like he needed someone to slap him in the back of the head, like he had done to Ryan this past autumnal equinox when he had mentioned Castle. "He seems to be developing a bad habit of doing that hasn't he?"

Kate looked up at her friend beside her. He was trying to make her feel better; for he knew a laugh was unreachable. With all the effort she had stored up in her body she cracked a small smile at him.

Javier observed the saddened smile across his Beckett's face. He knew better to be hopeful of a lighter mood when she was like this. It amazed him how big of an impact Castle truly had on the woman sitting in front of him. "Do you think, maybe, you should call him?"

Kate raised her eyebrows at the detective sitting in front of her. Call him? No way. That would require showing him that she cared more than she let on. No she would wait for his call like she had told him when he hugged her goodbye at the airport. Kate closed her eyes as she remembered the hug he had given her. Even though she stiffened her body like a plank of wood, for that brief second that his arms were around her, she felt untouchable. A clearing of a throat made Kate shoot her eyes open again, she had forgotten Esposito was still seated next to her. "He told me he was going to call me when he landed in Los Angles, and his plane was supposed to land an hour ago."

Javier looked at Beckett incredulously. Why in the world did the woman have to be so stubborn? "What if he's in trouble right now and you don't call but you get a call in lets say two or three days by a police officer from another state telling you something happened?"

Kate looked to her left at Esposito and glared. All he was missing was a CIA conspiracy theory and the idea would have sounded like one of Castle's insightful ideas. "Shut up, Esposito," she said as she picked up the black phone on her desk and dialed Castle's number. As the phone rang, with her spare hand Kate took a tendril of her hair in her fingers and began twirling it. The phone rang five times before his voice came on the line. "_Castle_," he announced. At the sound of his voice Kate let out a relieved sigh. She knew Esposito had been wrong all along. "Castle, what the hell, why didn't you ca-"

"_Ha, I got you didn't I? As you have probably gathered, I am unavailable to answer the phone, who knows maybe, I'm duck taped to a chair again…you never know where research will lead me. Anyway, leave a message and I'll get back to you_."

When the voicemail message ended Beckett slammed the phone down on the receiver and huffed in aggravation. She knew better than to call him. She knew it was bound to end the way it just had. Deep down she knew he was fine. _He was probably off rendezvousing with his deep fried Twinkie of an ex-wife_, Kate thought bitterly. "He's not answering," she said as she looked up at Esposito.

Just as Javier opened his mouth to apologize for the male race's lack of decency he caught sight of the NY separating from the PD on the precinct's silver elevator. Javier's eyes widened as two officers escorted a burly man out of the elevator. "Beckett, look," he said in shocked awe.

Kate turned around in her chair to face the elevator. Kate drew in a breath as she took in what the suspect was wearing. A large black sweatshirt, with the head up hiding half of his face.

Kate exited the interrogation room and slammed the door behind her. She knew everyone was waiting to hear what the verdict of the interrogation was but she could not face them right now. Without lifting her eyes from the floor she slipped into the observation room and closed the door behind her. Kate felt the back of her head come in contact with the wall as she closed her eyes trying aimlessly to grasp control. They did not have the time to keep this up. Just as she was taking in deep breaths, trying to regain control of herself, Kate heard the other door of the observation room open.

Javier met Beckett's eyes as he crossed the room and took a seat at the table. When Beckett sat down in the chair at the head of the table was when Javier decided to speak. "So no dice?" he asked as he looked into Beckett's eyes.

Kate shook her head and looked into the distance as she brought the knuckles of her left hand to her lips. "No. we don't have time for this Esposito, he told me until the end of the day and it is all ready," she paused as she looked down at her father's watch that was on her wrist, "Five thirty. How am I supposed to catch him if we can't even figure out who he is?" Kate asked as she looked up at her fellow detective with fear in her eyes. "I-I can't fail again."

Javier looked at Beckett compassionately. What did she mean fail again? She never failed the first time. It wasn't her fault that they couldn't find the identity of a ghost. "Kate," Javier said as she brought her eyes up to meet his. "You did not fail. You caught Dunn; you saved countless lives by putting him behind bars."

Kate looked at Esposito with unbelief in her eyes. "Yeah. _We_ caught him and arrested him, but at the cost of five lives. Five victims by one murderer. Tell me that's not failing."

Javier lowered his brown eyes to look into Beckett's hazel ones. "Beckett, you did not fail," he said slowly as the door opened and Ryan stood in the doorway.

As Kevin stood in the doorway he looked at Esposito and Beckett sitting across from each other and tried his hardest to steady his shaking hands. He cleared his throat before he attempted to say the words he knew he had to. "Um, Beckett, there is someone on the phone asking for you," he said and paused as Beckett looked up with eager eyes. "It's not Castle."

Kate closed her eyes for a brief second as the three words Ryan said made her heart sink into her stomach. With a deep breath, trying to swallow her growing worry for her partner's well being, she rose and walked over to her desk. "Get a trace on this call," she said as she lifted the black receiver to her ear and hit the hold button. "Beckett."

Through the phone Kate heard the man laugh, a deep sinister laugh, that sounded strangely familiar. "_Hello Nikki_." Kate felt her body freeze as she heard the voice of Scott Dunn through the phone.

Anger surged through her body as she remembered the flash of light and the thunderous sound as her apartment exploded around her. "Dunn I-"

Another sinister laugh echoed through the phone cutting Kate off. "_You're going to spend an eternity in that interrogation room if you think I am Dunn, Katie. See, unlike Scottie, I am smart, I am able to tell the difference between reality and fiction; between Kate Beckett and Nikki Heat._"

Kate felt her eyes widen as the words of an entirely different voice came through the speaker of the phone. "Oh, that's good to know. But if you are so much smarter than Dunn, as you say, why call me Nikki, just like him?"

"_I'd_ _tell you…_" The final sinister laugh came through the speaker into Kate Beckett's ear. "_But then, I'd have to kill you, and I'm just not ready for that yet,_" he said and then with a click he hung up the phone.

As the dial tone appeared in Kate's ear she looked up at Ryan and Esposito desperate to see if they got the trace. However, as her eyes met the boys' faces her hopes sank. "You didn't get it?"

Javier looked up at the worried expression across his boss's face and tried his best to smile. "No, we got it, only thing is, the call's coming from Riker's island."

Kate Beckett got out of the passenger's side and draped her arms over the door as she stared at the stone building in front of her. The way that the setting sun cast a shadow against the building sent an eerie feeling through her. "Not quite as friendly looking as it is in the pictures, is it Beckett?" Esposito asked as rested his head on his crossed arms on the roof of the car.

Kate shot him a look out of the corner of her eye before slamming the car door closed. She had not taken but three steps when she heard Esposito's door close as well and then he was beside her. She looked at him for a fraction of a second wishing beyond all hope that by some miracle it would be Castle. But Castle wouldn't show up beside her; he was in California. Kate looked forward as the distance between her and the entrance grew smaller. How she wished she had Castle here right now, if for nothing more than to take her mind off the stress of the situation by asking some boneheaded question or spinning a theatrical theory that could only occur in a parallel dimension.

Javier looked over at Beckett as they walked through the doors leading to the reception and classification center. Her face was a mask of strength and fearlessness, a sign he had grown to know that meant she was nervous. As the doors opened and they stepped inside a tough looking middle aged woman with horn-rimmed glasses looked up from the novel she was reading.

"May I help you?" she said as she placed the book down with the spine facing toward Beckett and Esposito.

Out of habit Kate eyed the book she was reading, but at the moment she did she wished she had not been so nosy. Of course it had to be one of Castle's novels. As if he was not on her mind enough, every where she turned there was another reminder of him. Deciding to ignore the receptionist's choice of reading material she walked up to her desk. "I need to speak with Henry Vice."

The woman on the other side of the desk raised her bushy eyebrows at the two detectives. "Oh, you do, do you? Do you have an appointment?"

_An appointment to meet with a Warden? What is he so swamped with visitors that he needs to have them booked?_ Castle's voice ran through Kate's head as the woman asked the question. Resisting the urge to smile Kate pulled out her badge and displayed it to the woman.

"We're from the NYPD, do we still need that appointment?" Esposito said as he walked up next to Beckett.

In his office Kate Beckett looked up at Henry Vice. "And you are sure these are all the records of phone calls that occurred today?"

Henry Vice nodded his head as he looked at the woman sitting in front of him. "Detective, this is a murderer you are looking for, I presume?" he asked in his thick southern accent.

Kate looked up from the list of outgoing calls from the prison into the face of the warden in disbelief. They were homicide detectives, what else would they be looking for if it was not a murderer? "Yes, we are," she responded not trusting herself to say more for fear that it might come out sarcastic.

Henry shook his head. "Well, if it is a murderer you are looking for then why are you searchin' the prison walls? If a prisoner can get out undetected and commit those murders he ain't coming back."

As the words left Vice's mouth Castle's voice appeared in Kate's mind again. _That would be the perfect crime. He- or she-is currently serving time behind bars for a lesser crime that will get them out in a few years, so in their free time they figure out a way to get past the boarder, undetected. So one night they decide to give it a try, they sneak out, and hit the streets looking for revenge on the person who put them behind bars to begin with. Detective Kate Beckett. He plays with the idea of stalking, and then finishing you off, but no, that would be too easy for him. No, he wants you to suffer. And what's the one way to insure that, to let you live and kill all those that are around you that you love. So he sneaks out, commits a murder, and sneaks back in. securing his alibi, creating the perfect crime._ Had he been there beside her rather than Esposito Kate knew she would shake her head and ignore his silly theory. But as it was, he was not there. "Vice can you verify an alibi for each of your inmates during the times of the two murders?"

Henry Vice looked across the desk his feet were resting on at Beckett. Was she implying that one of their inmates was the killer? That was impossible! "Yes, Detective as a matter of fact I can,

"Are you sure of that?" Javier said to Vice, speaking for the first time since they entered the office.

Henry looked at the male detective and glared. "Yes, Detective I am," he repeated. "we have twenty four hour surveillance cameras all over this prison, not to mention a staff of over one hundred guards per section of the encampment. There is no way it could be one of our guys."

"Nevertheless," Kate said looking seriously at the warden. "I'd like to see the footage of all the security tapes from Saturday night between the hours of one and five a.m."

The warden smiled his yellow smile at the detectives. "I'll give you the recordings, but I can tell you detectives, your man is not behind my bars."

At eleven o'clock that night Kate was sitting on her desk staring at the white board in front of her trying to see if there was anything she was not seeing, anything she could have missed. As she stared she felt her mind wander back to Castle when she let it roam free. Each time she saw his blue eyes in the back of her mind she sighed regretfully and pushed herself harder to work. The sooner they caught the killer, the sooner Castle could come home.

Roy Montgomery looked at the back of the detective's head as he walked up behind Beckett. "How is it going, detective?" he asked as she turned her hazel eyes on him.

Kate closed her eyes regretfully at her captain's question. How was she supposed to answer that? Terrible, seemed like a good word to describe how things were right now. Her and Esposito had just spent the better part of the evening going over security footage from the prison to absolutely no avail. Shaking her head she said, "Nothing checked out, I should have just listened to Vice."

Roy sighed as he placed a hand on Beckett's shoulder. "No, Detective, you did exactly what you should have done. You had a gut feeling about something and you followed through with it, whether it paid off now or in the long run you did the right thing."

Kate sighed as she looked down at her lap. "I can't let him kill another innocent victim, Captain."

Roy sighed as he looked at the determined woman in front of him. This was going to be harder than he thought. "We won't Beckett. But there is something I need you to do now. I need you to go home and get some rest…"

Kate looked at her captain horror struck. "But sir!" she protested. "We are in a very crucial part of the investigation right now, I can't just leave."

"Kate," Roy said as he took a seat next to Beckett on the desk. "before you say no, listen to me. I need you to go home and get some rest. You are burning out quickly and it's affecting the way you perform your job."

As Kate Beckett got to the top floor of Richard Castle's apartment building she checked her phone again and sighed in regret. It was midnight, why hadn't the man called her yet? Surely, nothing had happened to him, had it? a sick feeling filled Kate as she thought of the possibility of losing him plagued her mind. Maybe she should try calling him again, maybe he'd pick up this time. Or she could always call Alexis. Yeah, that's what she would do, she thought as she approached the front door.

Eager to call Alexis to make sure they were all, all right, Kate stuck the key in the hole and went to open it, but the key wouldn't go any further. Kate felt her eyes grow wide as she reached on her belt for her gun. Slowly she opened the door, making as little noise as possible and stepped inside with her gun drawn. As she looked around everything seemed to be in place, nothing was taken. That didn't make sense though, why break into someone's house if you aren't going to take anything? Kate took a step toward the stairs with her gun pointed forward when she heard a familiar voice behind her. "Well, it's about time you got home."


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Castle belongs to ABC**

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Kate felt her body stiffen as she heard the voice behind her. Slowly, not lowering her gun, she turned on her heel to face the person who the voice belonged to.

"WHOO! Wow!" Rick said as Beckett turned around and had the barrel of her gun facing his chest. He knew she would be mad that he hadn't gotten on the plane this morning, but he didn't expect her to turn a gun on him.

"Castle?" she said with a mix of annoyance and relief in her voice as she lowered her gun and returned it to her holster. He was alive, unharmed, and standing before her. Her anger towards him for not calling was forgotten for a second as she took a step towards him. Then, like the raging waves of a hurricane the anger flooded her again and she stopped in her tracks. "Why aren't you in California?"

Rick smirked as he began to lift his arms to catch her in an embrace which he thought was coming, but then she stopped. With a sigh of regret he looked down at the woman who was standing noticeably close to him. Wasn't she happy he was standing a mere eighteen inches in front of her rather than twenty eight hundred _miles_ away? "I missed my flight," he said in a tone claiming that it was not an accident at all.

Kate folded her arms over her chest and looked up at Castle, much like a mother looks down at their misbehaving child. "You missed your flight? Really?" she asked in a tone that suggested that she did not believe a single word of his story, even if it was a short one. "And you didn't think to call and tell me this? Let me know that you were all right, that you were alive?"

Rick shrugged as he looked down at Beckett. "Well, you see, I would have, but- wait, why wouldn't I be al-" Rick felt his jaw drop into a surprised smirk "you were worried about me," he said stating a fact rather than asking a question.

Kate opened her mouth waiting for a comeback to seep through her lips, but one never came. She couldn't deny that she was worried about Castle, it was far too obvious. "That's not that point. Why didn't you call?"

Rick looked down at the ground and was silent for a moment before he looked up at Beckett again. "I was going to but…I didn't want you to make me get on another plane," he admitted bashfully.

He didn't call and tell her he was unharmed simply because he didn't want to be sent away again? Kate glared up at the man standing in front of her. "You are such a child!" she said as she walked over to the couch, with Castle following closely behind, and sat down. When he didn't respond to her accusation she continued. "How was it you were able to get your mother and daughter on a plane without you?"

As Rick took a seat he racked his brains for a story, any story to satisfy Beckett. Certainly he could not tell her the real reason they allowed him to go. As far as he knew the woman in front of him had no idea of the extent of his feelings for her, and Rick Castle was perfectly fine with that. "Bribery and a lot of it; I'll be lucky if I get off just buying Alexis a car as a home coming gift."

Kate looked as Castle aggravated. He bribed his daughter and mother to go off to safety without him. Why did he incessantly have this sick need to be at the center of every one of her cases?

"So, any progression on the case today?" Rick asked trying to deter the conversation from him back to the reason why he stayed behind. Immediately though, he knew he had asked the wrong question as he watched Beckett's eyes slide closed and she regrettably inhaled a breath.

"No," she responded shaking her head as she felt the frustration building behind her calm façade. "I failed Castle," she said as she felt her composure slowly slipping away. "He said I had until the end of the day to figure out who he is and arrest him, or he was going to kill someone else. And I failed."

"Any new suspects?" Kate asked Esposito the next morning as she leaned up against his desk beside him and looked at the white board.

Distracted by the Java Loft coffee cup in the lead detective's hand Javier ignored the question that was just asked to him. "Since when do you buy your own coffee?"

Puzzled by his question Kate looked down at the coffee cup in her hand and then back up at Esposito. "Oh, um, I didn't- guess who never got on his plane yesterday?"

As if on cue Rick Castle walked up around the vacant side of Esposito and pondered the white board. "So what have we got?"

"Not much," Javier said regretfully. "We suspect the guy to be a white male in his middle forties to early sixties recently paroled with a record of sexual assault possibly coupled with man slaughter or even murder."

Rick frowned at Esposito as he considered what he said. "You are aware that you just described over a quarter of the men that have been paroled within the last month."

Javier glared over at Castle. "Yeah, I know, but that's the best we got right now. If you got anything, I'm up for it."

Rick considered the board for a moment as he looked from the empty suspect column the pictures of the victims. A young beautiful brunette, and a handsome, square jawed, FBI agent. Who would want to kill two completely different people? Suddenly, Rick felt his eyes widen as an idea came to him. "Maybe our connection is wrong!" as the words left Rick's mouth Esposito and Beckett both looked up at him frowning. "Maybe they weren't killed because they knew you Beckett, maybe they were killed for what they know?"

Esposito frowned in confusion at Castle as Kate closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. If any case, this was certainly not the one for Castle's wild theories. "Castle…"

"No, no, no. Hear me out, it has weight, I promise," Rick said waiting for permission to continue. When none was given he continued anyway. "We treat our second victim as our first, Sorenson, he was an FBI agent. Kimberly, she was a waitress, an occupation that is easily a cover. They both could have been agents. Will the obvious one, and Kimberly the undercover one scoping out suspects and arrangements being made in her restaurant."

Kate rolled eyes and turned her attention back on the white board. If it wasn't a CIA conspiracy it was FBI agents undercover. "Castle, Kim is not an FBI agent."

Rick raised his eyebrows at his partner. "Really? How do you know?"

Javier smirked as he looked at Castle; Beckett was going to kill him for admitting she they intercepted one of Castle's crazy theories before it had even taken flight. "Because we already checked it out, bro."

Stunned, Rick looked from Esposito to Beckett waiting for someone to tell him that he was joking, but it never came. "Seriously?" he said as he looked at the detectives.

"Yeah," Javier said as he shrugged his shoulders, "days ago. Ryan and I had to exhaust every option. Ah! Speak of the devil!"

Kevin walked up to the two detectives and Castle and tried to force a smile on his solemn face. As the semi-lighthearted looks on the three faces in front of him dropped to concerned he knew he couldn't prolong the imminent news any longer. With a sigh, he opened his mouth. "Well, it seems that serial killers are good on their promises. We have another body."

Kate felt a frown crease her face as she pulled up along the curb on the corner of Broadway and Broome Street. She heard Castle mutter something, but she wasn't paying attention to him as she stared up at the unfamiliar building. Could it be a coincidence that the only connection that the other two victims had was her? no, that would have far too much of a stretch, but yet, as she looked upon that building that lay out in front of her eyes no recollection of it came to her. "I've never been here, Castle."

Rick frowned as well as he looked from Beckett to the building. "Well, you never were at Kimberly's apartment before Sunday morning either," he said in an obvious tone. When no response from Beckett preceded his comment he continued. "Either that, or he's changing his M.O."

At his words Kate tore her face away from the building and looked at Castle with wide almost frightened eyes. As much as she wanted to hope that all her loved would be safe from then on she prayed that he wasn't changing his M.O. The man, if he was a man, was unpredictable as it was, throwing them a curve ball like changing it up would send their investigation into a downward spiral. "Don't say that Castle."

With a serious expression on his face coupled with a serious tone in his voice Rick Castle looked at his partner. "Maybe I am wrong, we should probably go and see either way though," he said as he pulled the passenger side door open and stepped out.

As much as she hated to admit it, Castle was right. Sitting here in the sanctuary of her car was not going to change the fact that the victim upstairs was either someone she knew or a complete stranger. Kate placed her hand on the handle of the door and felt it being pulled away from her. Alarmed she looked up to see Castle's blue eyes shining down at her. "Thank you, Castle," she said as she placed her feet, clad in gray high heels, on the pavement and walked up to the building with her partner.

It wasn't until they were in the elevator and door was closed did Kate realize Castle had not said a single word since he had gotten out of the car. Puzzled, she looked over at him, but strangely, he did not return the look, instead he continued to stare at the floor buttons. "Everything okay over there?"

At the sound of Beckett's voice Rick looked up to see a concerned look on her face. "Yeah, everything's fine. Why?"

Kate shrugged slightly puzzled by his vague answer. "Well, the only other time I have heard you say this little is while you were sleeping, so…"

Rick frowned at his partner and shook his head. He did not understand her at all. She was constantly going on about how ridiculous his theories were, but she never out ruled them, and how he was incessantly running his mouth, but when he was quiet for a minute, she worried. "And you're complaining?"

Kate bit back a smirk that she felt creeping up to her lips. "No, no. I just found it odd," she said as the elevator dinged at floor ten.

The moment the doors opened Rick knew they were on the right floor. The hallway was crowded with law enforcement officers, CSU, medical personnel, and curious neighbors.

Kate watched as the doors opened and Castle stayed planted in his spot observing their surroundings. Walking past Castle she stepped out of the elevator and began to navigate her way through the sea of people in front of her.

As rick followed Kate through the mass of people up to the apartment number the captain had given them he saw Ryan and Esposito standing on each side of the door like bouncers at a nightclub. The closer they got to the other pair of detectives Rick noticed the solemn expressions across the detectives' faces. "Hey guys, what have we got?" Rick asked receiving a withering glare from Beckett for stealing her line.

As Castle asked the question Ryan and Esposito looked at each other and exchanged solemn expressions before turning back to the two in front of them. Ryan took a deep breath. "Lanie is waiting for you inside," he said as he opened the door to allow them in.

Kate had not gone five steps into the apartment when the site before her made her stop in her tracks, resulting in Castle crashing into the back of her. As he muttered some lame form of apology Kate looked around the room in utter shock and disgust.

This was not your run of the mill crime scene, this was gruesome. Blood was spattered against the white walls as if someone had taken a can of crimson colored paint, held it out, and spun with the lid off. Hand prints of blood were smeared on the porcelain tile leading from the kitchen to where the white carpet started in the living room. As Kate Beckett walked up to it and knelt down to get a better look at the prints she noticed the floor was not the only place that the hand prints were. There on the doorway leading out of the kitchen, near the floor, was a visible handprint on the corner of the wall, as if she was holding onto it as she tried to fight off her attacker.

Rick swallowed again trying to wash the sick feeling he had out of his stomach. How could someone do this? "It looks like she was dragged," he said to Beckett as she examined the wall closer.

As medical examiner Lanie Parish heard the distinct sound of her favorite author's voice she looked up to see her two friends standing in the entryway of the kitchen. "Beckett," she called and the detective looked up.

As Kate looked up and met Lanie's eyes she knew that her hopes had gone unfounded, the victim was somebody she knew. Kate closed her eyes and tried to mentally prepare herself for what she was about to discover. Releasing a breath she did not even realize she was holding Kate stood up and stiffly walked over to her friend. "Who is it?" she asked refusing to look down at the face down lifeless body.

Lanie looked up at her friend. She saw the fear of recognition in her hazel eyes. With regret pounding through her veins Lanie looked into Beckett's eyes. "Madison Queller."

The familiar sick feeling in her stomach that reared its ugly head with every victim of this case so far was back as Kate finally brought herself to look upon the body of her high school friend. Unable to look for even more than a moment she slid her eyes closed as a lone tear escaped.

Rick felt grief fill his body as he looked down at the beautiful woman who not long ago was very much alive as they walked arm in arm into Rocco DiSpirito's restaurant. Now though, the color was drained from her face and her blonde hair was soaked in her own blood. Rick heard a deep breath beside him and he yanked his eyes off the once beautiful woman in front of him and let them travel beside him, to Beckett. Her eyes were closed and a single tear track ran down the right side of her face. Not knowing what else to do Rick took his partner's hand in his own much like he had done the night that Jerry Tyson had escaped.

As she felt Castle's hand grasp her own Kate felt her eyes shoot open and look at Castle's face. He looked back at her and much like a trance their gaze held not allowing either of them to come any closer than where they were now but nor allowing them to look away. It wasn't until the front door opened that their gaze broke and Kate noticed something on the wall. Frowning she stepped away from Castle, Lanie, and Madison's body. As she approached what caught her eye her breath caught in her throat. For there, written inside the dried blood splatter was a message. "_3, 2, 1, Detective. Looks like you're facing the ghosts of friendships past._"

Captain Roy Montgomery was sitting at his desk on the phone with District Attorney Paul Wright when he heard a knock at his office door. "Yes, Paul, we are doing the best we can, we have her and those close to her under twenty-four hour surveillance. Yes, I will keep you posted. Have a good day," he said as he hung up the phone. "Come in."

Kate Beckett slowly opened the captain's door and stepped inside. She could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She knew what she was about to ask would more than likely be denied but she had to try anyway.

"Beckett," Roy said surprised, sitting up straighter. He had no idea that his best detective team had arrived back at the prescient, "is everything okay?" he asked seeing the look of distress across Beckett's face.

As Kate parted her lips to ask the question she felt her throat go dry. Swallowing a few times and biting her bottom lip Kate shook her head. "Sir, I need to go home."

Roy looked at Beckett surprised; in the five years she had worked in homicide he could not remember her ever asking to go home early. She lived for her job, it sometimes seemed. Without hesitation he nodded his head. "You've had a long couple of days, go home and get some rest."

Kate looked at her captain joyfully surprised until she realized what he thought she was asking. "No, Captain, I meant my apartment, I just need some time alone."

Roy looked across the desk at his best detective with a solemn expression on his face. He wished he could give her what she was asking for, but he just couldn't allow her. "Beckett, like I told you before, we don't have-"

"Sir, I don't need any security detail, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. What happened with Dunn, will not happen again!" Kate pleaded with Montgomery to see reason, she couldn't stand to have to keep just a solemn face for another night, and she refused to allow Castle to see her break again.

Roy took a deep breath in, he could not even begin to imagine the type of turmoil that Beckett was in right now, having each victim closer to her than the next. "Beckett, I just got off the phone with the D.A. he wants you under complete protection. Staying with Castle at his place, believe it or not took a lot of convincing. I'm sorry Kate, but as long as this guy is killing we need you to stay with Castle."

Kate felt the frustration building up in her eyes. She wouldn't lose control, not here, not in the captain's office. Pushing her lips together and breathing out her nose she turned around and exited the office.


	12. Chapter 12

**Castle belongs to ABC. Yes I know, I've already posted this chapter, but I've made some changes in this one and the next, if you're interested, feel free to read and leave feedback, if you rather not, I understand :)**

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Rick Castle was sitting at the high top table, with his hands wrapped around a hot mug of coffee, in the kitchen of the twelfth precinct. _Dead? How could Madison be dead?_ He couldn't wrap his mind around it, she was so young. A sudden pang of guilt hit his stomach. He barely knew Madison, and she was the only person he had lost. How could he be sitting here feeling sorry for himself when Beckett had lost two others as well?

Captain Roy Montgomery stood in the doorway of the kitchen as he looked at Castle. The man looked like he was so deep in thought the captain could not find it within himself to disturb him quite yet. It wasn't until Castle turned his head toward the doorway did he even see him.

"Captain?" Rick said almost alarmed to see the middle aged man standing in the doorway. He had never known the man to skulk in doorways, so that could only mean one thing; he needed to talk to him.

"Castle," Roy said as he walked up to the table where Castle was seated. "There is something I need to discuss with you."

"What is it, Captain?" Rick asked as felt the fear climb into his cobalt eyes. Had something happened? He quickly went through an inventory of the people he was close to in his mind. Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito were all safely back here at the precinct. He had just gotten off the phone with Alexis not ten minutes before the captain came in so he knew that her and his mother were safe in California with Meredith. Who else in the world could have been harmed?

Roy shook his head. "It's nothing bad, Castle," he said in a calming voice in order to calm the author's obvious turmoil. "It's just something I need to talk to you about, and I need your discretion."

Frowning, Rick nodded his head at the captain. He wanted to talk to Castle about something nobody else knew of? "Does this need to be in private Captain?"

Roy Montgomery took a look around the entryways of the kitchen and outside its windows; she was nowhere to be found. "No, this is fine," he said as he walked over to the counter and poured himself a cup of black coffee before taking a seat across from Castle.

Again Rick frowned at the man sitting in front of him. "So what is this all about?" he asked as Montgomery took a sip out of his mug.

Swallowing the hot liquid Roy placed the white NYPD mug down on the table and looked across at Castle. "It's about Beckett, actually."

_Beckett_? Her name took Rick by surprise coming out of the captain's mouth. What could possibly be wrong with Beckett? She was fine, he reassured himself as he looked out the kitchen window at her sitting at her desk poring over the case file for the millionth time. "What about her?"

Roy took a deep breath and suddenly realized he had no idea what he could say to Castle that wouldn't cause Beckett to want to physically hurt him. "She has requested to return to her apartment for the time being."

"No!" Rick voiced automatically as he felt the color drain from his face. No if Montgomery thought that he was just going to let Beckett walk out of his apartment just to stay alone in her own apartment he was sadly mistaken. "I'm sorry; Captain, but I will not allow that."

Roy nodded his head as he tried to conceal his smile. So often Castle's true feelings for Beckett were so overt that he wondered how the woman didn't see it herself. "Good, then I am glad we are in agreement. I denied her request," he said as he watched the relief spread across Castle's face. "Which brings me to my request for you?"

"Your request for me, Captain?" Rick asked as he furrowed his brow. How could he be a part of Beckett's solitude, other than of course leaving her alone? Which he would gladly do if she so much as asked for it.

Roy nodded his head. "This is just pure speculation, but I believe that she needs some time alone to absorb everything that has happened over the last few days, and I…"

Rick smirked he knew where he was going with this. "You were just wondering if I could get out of the apartment for the night, give her some space?"

Roy smiled as Castle caught on to what he meant. He truly was brighter than most of the detectives here gave him credit for. "Exactly."

Rick smiled as he downed the final sip of his now cold coffee. Of course he would give her all the space she needed. "Sounds like a good plan to me. I need a night out with the boys anyway," he joked as he stood from his seat.

As Rick neared Beckett's desk he caught a rare sight of her face when her emotional wall wasn't attempting to keep everyone out. She looked fatigued and in considerable amount of pain as she stared up at the white board. "Hey," he said as he took his seat in his chair.

Before their eyes met the emotionless mask was in place once again, taking away any signs that the case had taken a toll on her. "Hey," Kate said as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"How are things going?" Rick asked awkwardly as he tried to gather his thoughts together in order to tell her she would be on her own tonight. An exasperated sigh from Beckett told him that he had asked the wrong question.

Kate shook her head in frustration as she consulted the notes once again. "I don't know what it is with this case; it just seems to be one dead end after another."

Rick created a thin line with his lips as he looked from the pictures of the three victims, to the mass amount of evidence, and then finally landing on the only empty section of the white board, suspect column. "Those DNA results haven't arrived yet?"

Kate looked up at Castle as she shook her head. "No, according to Lanie, there's some peculiarities with the results, she didn't go into details, but she said that it would be a couple more days," she said flashing her eyes from the white board to Castle and back again.

"Of course," Rick exhaled as he looked at the white board in front of him. The answer was there; he knew it was, sitting right in front of them, just beyond their gaze. Scenarios raced through his head, ones even more ridiculous than the next.

Kate looked up at Castle in surprise, never before had she heard the hopelessness in his voice as she just heard. After her staring went unnoticed for a few seconds Kate turned her face back to the board in front of her and sighed in exhaustion. "Oh god, I cannot wait for this just to be over," she said as she combed her hair back with her fingers.

As the words left Beckett's mouth it was like a light bulb ignited above Rick's head. "'Over,'" he said in a shocked whisper.

Kate looked up and frowned as she heard Castle mutter something to himself. "What?"

Rick looked at Beckett his eyes were wide in revelation. "'I told you this isn't over'!" he said with almost a giddy excitement to his voice as he jogged over to the white board and removed the picture from Kimberly's apartment and placed it down in front of Beckett's face, on top of her notes. "Scott Dunn!"

Kate shifted her eyes upward so her eyelashes pressed against the bone of her brow as she looked at Castle idiotically. "Castle, Dunn didn't do it, trust me, I would like to believe he did it as much as the next person, but he was accounted for, for every other murder after the first one."

Rick shook his head as he looked down at Beckett, apparently his Jedi skills needed some polishing because she did not understand what he was trying to get at. "No, no, no. I know Dunn didn't do it, but I think he knows who did."

Kate looked up at Castle shocked. A block in her mind was not letting her comprehend the message that Castle was trying to portray. "What do you mean you think he knows who did it?"

"'This isn't over, Heat' 'I told you this isn't over' they're virtually the same line! I can tell you, whoever our murderer is; Dunn knows him, and well."

Kate looked up at Castle silent for a minute, what he was saying made sense, but how could they prove that he had said anything? Kate shook her head dumbfounded. "Who would he have told?" she asked thinking out loud more than asking a question.

Rick thought about Beckett's words for a brief moment. Who would a serial murderer tell his ploys of revenge to? "His cell mate!"

Kate looked up at Castle shocked for the briefest of moments before looking away and tapping keys at her computer. As she came across Dunn's sheet she scrolled down to his known associates. The list was not long but in the few names that were there a single one popped out at her. A case she worked five years ago. Lost in her pool of memories Kate nearly hit the ceiling when Castle spoke again. "Anything creditable?"

"Yeah," Kate said as she nodded her head. "Victor Marilli, he was my first collar after I became a detective," she continued as smiled solemnly at Castle.

"Does he have any priors to the murders?" Castle asked as he leaned over Beckett's shoulder to look at the screen in front of them.

"_Murder_, actually," shaking her head Kate continued "he killed his mistress, we never found out why though. But yes, he was charged with the rape of his girlfriend when he was seven…teen," Kate said as she looked over her right shoulder to see Castle's face noticeably close to her own. For what felt like the hundredth time that week Kate felt her throat go thick and nerves erupt in her stomach. Surely he wouldn't kiss her, here, where they worked, in front of all their co-workers.

As Rick looked into Beckett's hazel eyes he waited for her to pull away, like she had the last time they were this close. She didn't though; she stayed in the same spot staring back into his eyes. He didn't dare move an inch closer though, for he did not know if he could face her after another rejection.

"So I just got off the phone with La-nie," Kevin said as he and Esposito approached Beckett's desk to find Castle and Beckett's faces barely an inch apart.

At the sound of Ryan's voice Rick felt his body jump in surprise and without being able to stop himself stood up to his full height as he felt his face flush.

"Are we interrupting something?" Javier asked in a playful tone as he looked down into Beckett's face hoping for a yes.

"No," both Castle and Beckett chorused and looked at each other with the same surprised and hurt look at the other's answer.

"Oh-kay," Kevin said not believing the answer that came out of either of their mouths, but he knew better than to press either of them. "So, just got off the phone with Lanie, she just completed the autopsy on Madison." Kevin took a deep breath before continuing with the news. "Turns out she was raped too, and the assaulter's DNA from both victims match."

At eight o'clock that night Castle and Esposito were sitting at a high top table across from Kevin Ryan in a sports bar that had various cheers coming from both the many televisions' speakers and the many occupants who had come to watch the game. Kevin opened his mouth to say something when Castle's phone emitted the theme from Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.

Rick felt his body cringe out of habit as he heard the distant sound of the ringtone he had set for his ex-wife, Gina. Fortunately, this time they had parted on good terms, but still there were only two reasons the woman called him, her alimony payments and to check when his latest manuscript would find its way to her desk to be reviewed. Without even bothering to look at the screen of his phone Rick hit the ignore button and looked back up at his two partners. "Sorry about that."

Javier frowned, he had only once known Castle to screen his calls, and that resulted in a call to the precinct, and they hadn't received one. "Who was that?" he asked curiously.

Rick shrugged his shoulders as he took another sip out of the frosted mug that sat in front of him. "Gina, it's the third time she called me this week, her alimony payment is due, and she wants to make sure I'm not falling behind."

Kevin and Esposito both nodded their head in understanding. If there was one thing that the woman did not play around with, it was her money. "So what ever happened between you two? One minute you were completely solid and the next thing I knew she was gone."

Castle looked down at his mug with a feeble smile as Javier looked at Ryan slightly shocked. He knew Ryan often spoke before he thought things through but this was intrusive, even for him. "Ryan-" he began in a warning tone.

However, Rick intercepted it. "No, no. it's all right, I should have told you guys from the beginning," Rick said and was quiet for a moment before continuing. "She left me, she told me as much as she loved me, she couldn't stay, because a woman always knows when she is second in a man's life, and though some women could live like that, she couldn't."

It was nine p.m. and Kate Beckett was at her desk at the precinct with an open carton of shrimp lo mein to her side while she again read through the notes of the case. Something about this case just was not adding up. There was something they weren't seeing. As she looked back up on the covered white board the name Victor Marilli kept entering her memory. Why did a case that was closed five years ago keep bothering her? She was deep in thought when a voice beside her made her jump.

"Beckett, what are you still doing here?" Roy Montgomery said as he stood beside the desk of his lead detective.

Kate looked up at her captain beside her. She hadn't realized how empty the precinct had gotten over the last few hours since Castle and the boys left. "I-uh, just wanted to finish up…" she trailed off as she motioned to the papers in front of her.

Roy nodded his head; he had heard that excuse from her many of times over the years. It seemed when she had a case she did not want to stop until the murderer was found and convicted. It was one of the reasons she was his lead detective. "Well, whatever you are working on will still be there in the morning, go home get some rest."

Kate looked up at the man in almost a state of shock; this was one of the biggest cases she had gotten since she started as a detective. If she went home now, there was less of a chance of catching him before he killed someone else. "Sir?"

Roy raised his eyebrows as he looked down at Beckett. "Kate, I need you to go home, you said to me earlier today, you needed to be alone, Castle is out for the night. Go home and get the solitude you need."

"But Sir-"

Roy shook his head at Beckett's protest. "Beckett, we have every cop in the city looking for this guy, we are going to find him."

"But we don't even know who he is, all we have is a shaded picture of the man," Kate argued as she looked up at Montgomery.

Roy attempted to hold back his smile as he nodded at Beckett again. "Exactly, so you depriving yourself of rest as we try to find a ghost is detrimental to all of us. Once we get those DNA results we will find him, until then, go home. That is an order."

A few hours later, after Ryan had gotten a frantic call from Jenny, the two detectives and the author decided to disperse and head home. As Richard Castle opened the front door of his apartment the dim lights of the hallway drenched the darkened living room. Rick frowned as he stepped inside and turned on the light. Rick looked down the hallway towards his bedroom and saw that Beckett's bedroom door was still open. She wasn't asleep; could it be possible that she was still at work? No, Montgomery wouldn't have let her stay past the time he left.

Puzzled by her whereabouts Rick walked into the kitchen and removed his wallet from his pants and walked over to the refrigerator. As he placed his hand on the handle something out on the patio caught his attention. His hunger forgotten he walked closer to the doors to investigate.

Kate Beckett stared out at the brightly lit city not seeing the buildings or the lights or the traffic as she thought of the things her and Madison had done over the years. She was day dreaming of prom when she felt something warm and heavy cover her shoulders. Alarmed she turned her head to the side to see Castle standing there, now coatless. A sigh of relief encompassed her as she breathed his name. "Castle."

He looked down at her with apology in his eyes. "Sorry," he said with a laugh in voice, "You just looked kind of cold."

Kate looked at him as he rested his arms on the railing of the balcony and looked out at the city just like she had been doing. As she looked back out at the view before her, a thought plagued her. Normally an invasion of her solitude would have annoyed her, especially if it was from Castle. Now though, she didn't seem to mind it. In fact, it was quite the contrary, she welcomed his company.

From the corner of his eye Rick snuck a glance at Beckett as she silently pulled his jacket tighter around her shoulders as she leaned over the balcony to look at the view of the city.

As she listened to the sound of the traffic below Kate felt eyes on her. She smiled inwardly as she allowed Castle to watch her for a moment longer before turning to him and meeting his gaze with her hazel eyes. "What are you looking at?" she asked in a mellow tone.

Surprised by the acknowledgement of his stare Rick reflexively shook his head. "Nothing, just thinking," he replied honestly and turned his eyes to look out into upper Manhattan.

Intrigued by his response Kate stared at him with wonder swirling around in her mind. He was thinking, was it a possibility that she was on his mind? Was he aware of her presence the way she was aware of his? "Thinking about what?" she pried unable to live in ignorance.

Rick looked back at Beckett and felt the heat rise in his face. Could he tell her what really was on his mind? He shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the view of the city. If he was going to divulge his thoughts he knew for certain he could not see her reaction to what he was going to say. "I was just thinking about what could have been on your mind when I came out here." He paused to shake his head, "You were so deep in thought you didn't even look up when the door opened."

Kate felt an involuntary smile grace her face. "Madison," she said as she felt the smile die off of her face. Kate shook her head and looked down at the ground and closed her eyes as guilt washed through her body.

Rick looked down at his partner sympathetically. She looked so small standing before him her head hung in grief and shame; all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and comfort her. Although he knew she would never allow that.

Kate's eyes were not closed for more than a second when she felt Castle's finger under her chin lifting her head up. As it tilted backward Kate opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her. "You know it's not your fault, right? There's no way you could have stopped him," he said as if he could read her mind.

Kate shook her head in argument. "Yes there is, Castle. He gave me a day to catch him," she said and paused to shake her head. "And had I been a better cop I would have and Madison would still be alive."

Rick shook his head in disagreement. "I don't believe that," he said stubbornly causing a look of utter shock to be written across Beckett's face. He shrugged as he continued. "Mainly because I don't think there can be a better cop."

Kate stared at Castle with her lips parted in shock. She wanted to argue with him. Tell him she had failed and she did not deserve to be praised. However, she couldn't seem to form the thoughts going through her head into words.

Rick looked at Beckett and tried to keep the amused expression off his face as he watched her struggle to find something to refute him with.

After what seemed an eternity a coherent thought formed itself in Kate's mind and she looked defiantly into Castle's face. "Castle I-"

However the thought never got to take flight of its own for the moment Beckett opened her mouth to speak Rick took a step forward, took her face in his hands, leaned down and kissed the woman standing in front of him.

The moment Castle met his lips with her own Kate felt her body jump and her eyes grow wide. Her mind was telling her to push him away, how dare he invade her privacy like that! However, that was not what happened. As her eyes slid closed all protests of her mind silenced along with everything around them.

When Rick pulled away from the kiss he looked down at Beckett, smirked and shook his head. "Don't argue with me."


	13. Chapter 13

**Castle belongs to ABC. Yes, this chapter, too, is reposted, but it's almost entirely different.**

* * *

The NY and PD separated on the homicide floor of precinct twelve at nine o'clock the next morning reveling Castle and Beckett standing on either side of the elevator neither talking or merely even looking at each other. Beckett was holding her own white cup of hot coffee whilst Castle had three more identical cups in a cup carrier.

As the two stepped off the elevator again neither looked at each other nor said a word as they parted to go to their respective places. Beckett walked over to her desk, took a seat, and immediately picked up her phone to check her voicemail; Whereas, Castle made his way over to the desks of Ryan and Esposito.

As the two male detectives watched Castle approach them they looked at each other in stunned silence. Never had they seen Castle and Beckett act as if the other was not in the room, in fact, the banter that usually bounced back and forth between them was much like a ping pong ball. Something had happened, that was for sure, something big.

As Rick approached the desk of his comrades he smiled. "_Good_ morning, Detectives," he said as he placed the Styrofoam cup holder on the desk.

As Castle placed the coffee on their desk Ryan and Esposito looked up at Castle with even more shock on their face then they began with. Something strange was going on in the homicide department this morning. Not only were Castle and Beckett not acknowledging each other's presence, Castle had bought _them_ coffee, something he had never done before.

As Javier took his coffee, and he and Ryan muttered thanks to Castle, questions began to swamp him. Why was Castle doing this? What had happened to make Castle not even glance in Beckett's direction? "Castle, what's going on?" he asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

Rick frowned, _what was going on?_ He asked himself Esposito's question again. How was he supposed to answer that? Surely the truth wouldn't work. He could not very well tell them what happened. Not yet anyway. "With what?" he asked feigning innocence.

It was Kevin's turn to frown now. Was he serious with that question? Could he not feel the tension in the air between him and his partner? Kevin knew Castle could be oblivious but he wasn't that bad. "With you and Beckett; something happened."

Rick felt his eyes grow wide at Ryan's words. Something inside him prodded, tell them, they're going to find out sooner or later. But he wasn't ready to divulge the truth just yet; he wanted to keep it a secret for just a little while longer. "No it didn't."

Javier looked at Castle incredulously. Did the man seriously expect them to believe that nothing had happened when clearly everything was pointing to the contrary of his words? "Bro, you do know are homicide detectives. We are highly trained to be able to tell when someone is lying…"

Rick felt his mouth go dry. How was he going to get out of this one? The more he denied what happened the less they were going to believe him. "Guy's there is nothing going on between Beckett and me."

Kevin cocked an eyebrow at the man standing in front of him as he took another sip of coffee. For someone who made up stories for a living he certainly was a bad liar. "Then why is she so mad at you?"

With a wave of relief Rick realized the two did not think that the two of them had gotten together, they were simply curious why they weren't talking. Rick shook his head quickly coming up with a story. "I woke up at five o'clock this morning with intense inspiration so I went straight to my laptop and I got so carried away I lost track of time and let Beckett oversleep."

The two detectives looked at each other curiously before looking back up at Castle and shrugging. As he walked away Javier turned to Ryan. "Do you believe him?"

Kevin pondered the question for a moment before shaking his head. "No. what do you think really happened?"

Javier shook his head as he looked at Ryan. "I have no idea," he responded as he saw the little wheels turning in the back of Ryan's mind. "What do you think?"

Kevin looked around the room for a moment gathering his thoughts before he turned back to his partner. "Well, they're alone together, under the same roof, they were both late for work, and both of them are acting in a way neither of them has acted before…" he said as he watched a frown cross Esposito's face. "So you don't think…"

"No, bro, I don't," Javier answered quickly and harshly. It had been almost two years since Castle began shadowing Beckett. If there had been any chance of the two getting together it would have happened, long ago.

"So," Rick said as he walked up to the detectives again. "Any progressions in the case, we find anything new or useful?" He asked as Beckett's phone rang.

Javier swiveled in his chair to face Castle. "No, this guy is like a ghost," he said as Beckett hung up her phone, "he leaves no finger prints, no hair, no fibers, and no blood; if that DNA doesn't come back soon, we're screwed."

"Yeah, well, you can keep your pants zipped Esposito," Kate said as she walked over to the crowded desk area and stood as far away from Castle as she could. "Lanie just called, I think we caught a break."

As the word's left Beckett's mouth Rick felt his face light up. He looked at Beckett eagerly awaiting her to tell him to come along. "Are we going over to the morgue now?" he asked excitement apparent in his voice.

Kate looked up at Castle almost feeling bad, but she couldn't let anyone know what had happened. She was still trying to grasp and come to terms with it herself. "Not 'we' Castle, I'm going alone."

Rick felt his jaw drop open at Beckett's words. She was leaving him behind? She never left him behind; even when she was most upset with him- after he reopened her mother's case, against her wishes- he was allowed to tag along. "You mean I'm staying here?"

Kate looked at him and she was filled with guilt, the look that he was giving her was enough to make the most cold-hearted person feel pity. But she could not show any pity, for if she did, surely they would see her no longer repressed feelings for him written across her face. "Yup," was all she said and walked toward her desk.

At the morgue, Medical Examiner, Lanie Parish was leaning over a body when the swinging door of the examination room swung open and Kate Beckett strode inside. "Hey Lanie," she said as the door fell closed.

As Lanie looked up to smile at her friend she noticed something was different about the detective this morning. "Hey girl," she said as she stood up, ignoring the corpse, and tried to pinpoint the difference in her friend.

"You said that the lab techs were sending over the DNA results?" Kate asked hopefully as she walked over to the examination table and stood across from the M.E.

Lanie nodded. "That's what they told me. Spoke to them a little while ago, they said they're preparing the reports and they're going to have someone deliver them within the half hour."

Kate sighed in relief. "Finally," she breathed, she could not wait for the case and the whole emotional stress of it to be over with. "Any indication to what the peculiarities were?"

Lanie rolled her eyes showing her true detest for the feds. "Back logged."

Kate felt her lips part in shock. One of their own had been killed by this maniac and they still put other cases before this one. "Yes, because a serial killer isn't a threat to the community or anything like that," she said bitterly.

Lanie shrugged her shoulders. "Well, the feds have a different idea of what a threat is than we do," she said as she matched Beckett's tone. Mentally Lanie shook her head at her friend if she would just let Castle call in favors to the mayor the case might be solved all ready. As the thought of Castle crossed her mind Lanie looked around the room confused.

Noticing her friend's distraction Kate frowned at the medical examiner in front of her. "You looking for something?" she asked at a loss of what could be missing.

"Yeah," Lanie said letting the frown fade off her face and looking at Beckett. "Where is Castle?" she knew that he had returned from California but still he was not here with Beckett, where he was supposed to be.

At the mention of Castle's name Kate felt her cheeks grow red. She knew better than to lie to Lanie, she was the only person in the world that could tell when she was lying. "Back at the precinct."

"Really?" Lanie said raising her eyebrows at the detective. What had Castle done to be sentenced to stay behind?

Kate nodded her head confirming what she had just told Lanie. She knew Lanie had to be silently questioning her why Castle had not tagged along but she also knew that had she invited him to come along the car ride would turn into a discussion of "now what"s and she wasn't ready to face that yet. "Yeah. Anything else?"

Lanie shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, you tell me," she said with excitement in her voice as well as in her eyes as she willed Beckett to tell her something had happened between her and Castle.

Kate looked at Lanie for a moment deliberating whether she should tell her or not. Lanie was her best friend, she knew she wouldn't repeat it if she was told not to. _Castle probably already told the boys, why not tell Lanie_, her mind reasoned with her. Deciding neither was best Kate shrugged her shoulders and tried to look as innocent as possible. "What?"

The flame of excitement on Lanie's face burned down to a glimmering ember as the question left Beckett's mouth. She had been so sure that the two being forced to stay in the same empty apartment would bring them together. "Don't 'what' me. Castle."

Kate frowned keeping up her act. "What about him?" she asked as she shrugged. With each lie that came out of her mouth she felt herself be less and less convincing.

"Come on, girl," Lanie said knowing by the look on Beckett's face that she was lying. "You spend every working hour with the man by your side, flirting mercilessly, he opens up his own home for you to stay in. and now his family is halfway across the country- leaving only the two of you in his apartment- now tell me there is nothing going on between the two of you."

Kate bent her head down so her eyes were level with Lanie's. "There is nothing going on between the two of us, nothing like that anyway," she said just as her cell phone emitted a ring throughout the examination room.

At her words Lanie looked astounded at Beckett. "Okay, so you're not sleeping with him, but there is something going on?"

Kate rolled her eyes as she pulled her phone out of its holder on her belt and brought it up to her ear. "Beckett," she said waiting to hear what Ryan had to say.

"_Uh, hey Beckett, I thought you said that the Feebies were going to deliver the DNA results to the morgue where you and Lanie are?_"

Kate frowned. They were supposed to be delivering them here, that's why she was waiting here being interrogated by her best friend. "I did say that, why?"

"_Well, because one of those brilliant agents sent them to the wrong place; I'm holding the package in my hand right now. Don't worry, we haven't opened it_."

At Ryan's words Kate sighed exasperated. "Okay, well at least we have the results now. Thank you, Ryan," she said as she hung up the phone. Then looking to Lanie she said, "The results are back at the precinct, I should probably head back."

Lanie looked at Beckett from across the table. She didn't think she was getting let off the hook that easily did she? "You know, just because you think you're good at hiding things from suspects doesn't mean I can't see what's going on," she said tauntingly.

For the first time Kate looked down at the body laying on the slab right in front of her and bit her bottom lip. No, there was no escaping it; she had to tell Lanie, even if it meant allowing Castle to tell Ryan and Esposito. "It was nothing; it was just a kiss," she said cavalierly as she headed for the door.

For a brief second Lanie looked astounded at her friend, overjoyed with happiness for both her and Castle. "You know that's a pretty big nothing Beckett!" she called to her as the door swung closed.

As Kate Beckett stepped off the elevator on the homicide floor of precinct twelve she felt a hand wrap itself around her arm and pull her into an observation room nearby. By the time she realized what happened she saw Castle pulling the door closed. When he turned around she crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance and looked up at the writer. "Castle! What are you doing? I have a murder to solve."

Rick leaned up against the door and looked down at Beckett, for the first time, with authority. "Beckett, we need to talk," he said as he watched a questioning look cross her face.

_Talk?_ What could the man want to talk about? Surely it had nothing to do with the case, for if it had he wouldn't have pulled her into an observation room. "What is this about Castle?"

Rick looked away from Beckett for a moment; much like writing a book he knew what he had wanted to say, just getting it started was the hard part. "They know something's going on, Beckett."

At Castle's words a rush of anger swept through Kate as she looked up at the man in front of her. "How?" she asked disbelief unbridled in her hazel eyes.

Rick looked at Beckett stunned for a moment; surely she knew she was acting differently around him, colder. "They're detectives, Beckett."

With realization Kate closed her eyes and shook her head. She had been so wary not to flirt with Castle in fear that it may let on that something happened that she hadn't even realized not doing just that made it even more apparent that something happened. "So what did you tell them?" she asked regret soaking her tone.

Rick looked at Beckett for a short second hurt by the regret in her voice. Had it been a mistake last night to kiss her? "I told them you were upset with me for allowing you to oversleep," he said solemnly.

Kate looked up at Castle relieved. Ryan and Esposito didn't know the two of them had gotten together? "They think I'm mad at you?" she said thrilled.

"Yeah," he said with no trace of happiness in his voice as he looked down at the linoleum floor below him.

Finally noticing the solemness of Castle's tone Kate frowned. As she looked at his face his clear blue eyes did not hold the happiness and excitement that a case usually brought. "Castle, what's wrong?"

Looking up from the observation room floor Rick met Beckett's eyes. "Is it because you're embarrassed by me that you don't want anyone finding out?"

Kate felt her jaw fall open at Castle's question. "Oh, Rick no," she said looking at him compassionately before taking a step toward him. She hadn't even thought that he may have wanted people to know. She had just been so concerned with keeping her own reputation in check. "I'm not embarrassed by you," she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Well good," Rick said as he wrapped his arms around her waist in return and smiled down at her. He should have known better than to have the fleeting moment of self doubt. As always they proved him wrong.

"All the annoying little things you do, but not by you." Kate said as she leaned up and kissed him gently before pulling out of the embrace.

Rick smiled to himself. He loved doing the little things that annoyed and embarrassed her. "So what did Lanie have to say?" he asked as she placed her hand on the door.

As Kate pulled the door open she pondered Castle's question for a moment before turning around and facing him. A smirk crossed her face as she thought of the answer to the question. "Well she approves," she said and walked into the bull pen.

Rick stood just beyond the doorway in utter shock. Had she meant what he thought she meant? Of course she did! "Wait a minute, you told her?" he asked as he jogged up behind Beckett.

"You told who what?" Kevin asked as he walked up to Beckett and Castle with an unopened orange packing envelope.

Kate Beckett stared down at the results as shock consumed her. The same thought kept repeating itself in her mind, _no, it can't be him; he's in jail_, and yet the name on the page remained. The only way it could have been him was if he was released from jail. But why would he be when not even half of his term was completed?

Rick walked up to Beckett's desk, coffees in hand; as he watched her hazel eyes go again to the top of the page. It had to be bad if she kept rereading it. He had come to know when Beckett didn't like the result of something it took her quite a while to grasp it. How many times, he wondered, in the time it took him to get coffee did she read that report?

Kate saw Castle approaching out of the corner of her eye as he approached the desk with her coffee and took his place in the chair beside her. "Thank you, Castle," she said as her hand brushed his in the process of grabbing her coffee. Kate looked up surprised by the contact to see Castle's blue eyes smiling down on her compassionately.

"You're welcome," he said as he continued to stare at her as she went back to looking over the DNA report again. He wondered how many times she was going to read it before she gave up on the fact that the name was going to change. "So what does that report say that has you so upset?"

Kate looked up at Castle surprised. "I'm not upset, Castle." How had he known that it had bothered her? He wasn't that good at reading her, was he? No, he couldn't be; or at least she didn't want to think that he knew her as well as he did. When she looked up again she caught him staring at her with his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "I'm just perplexed."

"Why, what does it say?" he asked as he leaned over the side of the desk to get a peek at the report. "Victor Marilli?" Had he heard that name before? Surely he had to, why else would it sound so familiar, but from where? "Have we arrested him before?"

Kate looked up from the page and over to Castle before she jumped. When had he gotten so close to her? She opened her mouth to say something about his proximity when he sat down normally in his chair once again. Shaking her head she looked at Castle. "No, Castle. _We_ haven't, but I have. He was my first collar."

Rick felt his jaw drop open. That was where he heard the name before! It was on the list of known associates of Scott Dunn. No wonder the results bothered her the way it did. It was not only personal, it was revenge. "Wow, nothing like the ghosts of your past to come back and haunt you."

_It was January of 2005 when Kate Beckett walked up the icy steps leading to the front door of the home of Victor Marilli. She knew he would not be home and that suited her just perfectly as she reached her arm out and knocked on the door. It was a minute before the door opened revealing a woman in her late thirties with two girls approaching their preteen years standing by her side._

_As the woman took in Kate's law enforcement attire a frown of puzzlement found its way across the woman's face. As if automatically Kate reached her for her badge and held it out to the woman. "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. I was wondering if I could take a few minutes of your time."_

_Sharon Marilli nodded her head as she opened the door wider. "What's this about?" she asked and looked down to make sure the two girls were still by her side._

_Kate took another breath before continuing. She was going to kill Montgomery for convincing her that she was ready to go at this on her own. "It's about your husband," she said and immediately regretted it for the look of fear that crossed the woman's face was almost unbearable. "He's fine, don't worry."_

_At the detective's words a look of relief crossed Sharon's face and she pushed the door open wider for her to come in out of the cold. Yes her husband was alive and safe. Call it foresight, or just plain luck, but whatever the reason the Sharon leaned down to her daughters and looked at the older of the two. "Camille can you and your sister go watch Kim Possible in Mommy's room while Detective Beckett and I talk for a little while?"_

_The ten year old looked up at her mother with a look of puzzlement on her face. "I thought you said you didn't want us watching TV in there anymore because we leave it a mess."_

_As Kate stepped through the door and closed it behind her Sharon looked down at her daughter with a pleading look. "Well, it's okay just this once. Now go up stairs and I'll get you when lunch is ready."_

_As Camille nodded she took her sister by the hand and ventured up the stairs and disappeared from sight. When Sharon heard her bedroom door close she led Kate into the kitchen. "I don't mean to be rude, Detective, but if my husband is alive and unharmed, why are you here?"She asked as she poured herself a mug of coffee._

_Kate took a breath before she began; she was finding out very quickly that delivering this type of news was never going to get easier. "Do you by any chance know this woman?" she asked as she pulled out a picture of Libby Murray and handed it to the woman._

_As Sharon took it in her hands a frown creased her face. "No," she said shaking her head. "I don't believe so. Why?"_

_Kate mentally shook her head. She had to give Marilli one thing he either was very good at keeping a secret or good a picking a wife who was too oblivious to see the truth. "She worked for the same company your husband works for." Sharon was quiet for a minute waiting for Kate to show her how her husband tied in directly to the story she was telling. "She was found strangled to death in her apartment last Monday."_

_As the words left Kate's mouth Sharon's closed lips fell apart and a look of pity crossed her face. "Oh, my god that's terrible. But what does my husband have to do with this?"_

_Kate looked down at the floor before she had the strength to look up at the woman again. "We have evidence to prove that the two of them were having an affair," she said and watched the color drain out of the woman's face._

_"An affair? Are you sure?" she said meekly trying to grasp the concept that her beloved husband had been unfaithful._

_"We think so," Kate said as she nodded her head. She opened her mouth to tell her the last part but the words would not come out. Finally with another breath she tried again. "Can you verify where he was on Monday night?"_

_Sharon forced her lips together as she shook her head and pushed her brown eyes toward the ceiling so as to keep them from the tears that were quickly filling up her eyes. "No, Detective, I don't remember where he was last Monday. Why, was he with her?"_

_Kate exhaled her breath as she watched the woman try to fend off emotion. How was she going to be able to tell her this? It was one thing to console a wife of a husband who had just died, but another matter entirely to tell her he preferred someone else. "Yes, we believe he was," she said and shook her head; this certainly was the hardest part of all. "We also have good reason to believe that he is the reason she is dead."_

_As the horrendous words left Kate's mouth Sharon's face became like stone, and without any warning the coffee mug, that was in her hand, crashed to the floor. _

_It was a month later when Kate Beckett found herself standing in the back of a packed courtroom. For as many as occupied the seats of the room it was surprisingly quiet; only few talked in hushed tones to their neighbors. As the minutes ticked by Kate ran her eyes up and down the room. At the front the judge sat next to, now, an unoccupied witness stand. As her eyes drifted down the room they fell on the back of the head of Victor Marilli. It was strange how he was conducting himself today; he had given up on denying he committed the crime but instead just sat there in silence with an anger radiating off of his determined composure. The courtroom hadn't been silent for long when a uniformed cop entered the room through a door to the left of the witness stand carrying an envelope. As the judge took it in his hands and opened it a smirk so small it was nearly nonexistent formed on his face for a heartbeat before it vanished. He stood up and looked out at the crowd before letting his eyes fall on Marilli. "Ladies and gentlemen, the jury hereby finds the accused, Victor Marilli, guilty of the murder of Libby Murray."_

_As the judge announced his verdict the courtroom erupted into an explosion of cheers, hugs, and tears. However, as the bailiff led Marilli away the crowd went silent. It was as if they were waiting, waiting for him to do the unthinkable. _

_The bailiff and Marilli had almost made it to the door when he wrenched his body out of the bailiff's grasp and turned around and looked at Kate straight in the face from one hundred feet away. "You cost me my family, you ruined my life, my future," he shouted as the bailiff took him by his shoulders and began dragging him toward the doors as he screamed. "This isn't over, Detective! One day this all will come back and then you'll be sorry you framed me!" he managed to scream out as the bailiff pushed him through the door._

"Hey, uh, Beckett," Javier called as he walked up to Beckett holding a piece of paper that he knew was going make this investigation crash around the detective. "I found something on Marilli, I think you should see."

Rick looked up at Beckett feigning insult. "You showed Esposito the results before you showed me? So much for me being your partner?" he said just to be ignored by both detectives.

Kate looked up at Esposito waiting eagerly for some hint of a clue to where Marilli was now. "Please tell me you found out where he is."

Javier regretfully nodded his head to the detective's plea. Yeah they found him all right, but that wasn't going to make it any easier to deliver to either Beckett or any of the aggrieved family members of the deceased. "Yeah, we found him, Marilli."

At Esposito's words Kate felt her face light up, if they found his location all ready that only meant a matter of time before they had him in their custody and the case would be over with. "Where is he?" Kate asked excitement beaming off her.

"There's something you're not telling us," Rick said as he looked at the solemn expression across Esposito's face. Now, Rick knew he hadn't been around for as long as any of the detectives here, but he had been around long enough to know that usually finding a suspect's whereabouts was a good thing. However, the expression on Esposito's face did not hold the joy that was certainly appropriate.

A frown crossed Kate's face as Castle spoke his words. What did he mean that Esposito wasn't telling them everything? Esposito wanted to find him just like everyone else did across the city. Then she noticed something she had disregarded before, Castle had been right something about the detective standing in front of her was troubled.

Javier nodded his head in agreement with Castle's words as he looked down at the pair in front of him. "We found him…in Albert's Garden. He's been there for two months."

Rick frowned; he had heard that name before. Albert's Garden, he couldn't think of where though. As he turned to Beckett to get some clarification he saw her mouth open in shock and a look of horror written across her face. "I don't suppose that Albert's Garden is a correctional facility of some sort?"

Javier snorted at Castle's question; leave it to him to look on the bright side of things. "No Castle, it's a cemetery," he said as he handed him a copy of his death certificate. "Right off Second Street."


	14. Chapter 14

**Castle belongs to ABC. Sorry this chapter took SOOO long to come out, after seeing the spoiler of the kiss all ****inspiration for the story went out the window. I'll try my best to have the next chapter up sooner.**

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Kate snatched the death certificate and checked it for authenticity before looking up at Esposito in complete bewilderment. "Marilli's dead?" she asked with a horrified tone apparent in her voice. No, it wasn't possible for Marilli to be dead, not for the two months like his death record claimed. His DNA had been present at the crime scene a day earlier.

Javier looked away from Beckett for a moment before shaking his head and allowing his eyes to return to her. "It appears that way," he said shaking his head.

"This is not possible. His DNA was found at more than one of our crime scenes. He can't be…" Kate trailed off as she shook her head. Something about this felt wrong. The only other way that Marilli's DNA could appear in a crime scene, other than him being there, was if it was planted. Which, she knew, was impossible, Lanie corroborated that days ago by telling her there was more than one sign that the victims were raped.

"Uh, you don't think…" Rick began but when the two detectives looked at him stopped in embarrassment. There was no way they would even condone this theory.

Kate looked over at her partner waiting for him to continue. As the seconds ticked by and silence still filled the room she decided to give him a little push. "Castle, do you have a theory you'd like to share with the class?"

Shaking his head Rick looked up at Beckett perplexed. "No, it's crazy; I mean the audience would love it, but the chances of it-"

"Castle, Bro, we kind of need wild and crazy right now. In case you haven't noticed time is running out and bodies are stacking higher," Javier said as he looked down at the writer. He hated to admit it but more often than not the craziest of his ideas were right.

As Rick looked up into the faces of the two awaiting detectives he took a breath and braced himself for their response, which he was sure was not going to be good. "Do you think he faked his own death?"

A whole new wave of puzzlement crossed the detectives' faces before they frowned at each other and looked at Castle absurdly. "Um, I don't know Castle. Marilli didn't really seem the type to be theatrical."

"No, Beckett, think about it," Castle said as he placed his hand over Kate's to keep her attention on the crazy theory he was about to spin. For a split second she felt heat rise up in her cheeks as she looked down at their hands before looking up at Castle.

"How many cases have we solved where a person of interest ended up faking their own death?" Rick said exuberantly as Beckett pulled her hand out from underneath his and placed them in her lap. "Like eight!"

Kate lifted her eyes up to look at Esposito before turning them back on Castle. She had to give the man one thing, he certainly had the talent for over-exaggerating. "Try more like three, Castle."

Rick shrugged his shoulders. She was so concerned about the details of everything. He fought the urge to smile as he heard her voice in his head. _Out here they're called facts_. "Eight, three, same thing.

"Okay, so Marilli is unhappy in his marriage, that one is obvious. So in order to bring some happiness back into his love life, he has an affair with a woman he works with, Libby Murray. Well in the time he is with her he realizes in the how ever many years he has been with his wife he has never been this happy. He decides he wants to leave her, but he can't just divorce her. That costs too much money. So what does he do? He stages his mistress's death and then when he is convicted of her murder he stages his own five years later," Rick said smiling proudly to himself.

However, Kate was no so much impressed. "Impossible," she said as she watched Castle's face go from smug to beaten. "As someone who was at that woman's murder scene, I can promise you, there was nothing fabricated about that woman's death."

Javier frowned down at Castle. Some of his theories, Javier had to admit, were plausible but this one… "Why would he wait and rot in prison for five years just to fake his own death? And you do know that faking his own death would be more expensive than divorcing his wife."

Rick shrugged feeling embarrassment creep into his being, of course it would be more expensive; why hadn't he thought of that before he opened his mouth and looked like an idiot? "Well, maybe he didn't want to arouse suspicion to what he was doing, maybe he didn't want to get caught?" he said as his mother's voice went through his head. _That makes about as much sense as Mousetrap, did that play eight times a week for a year, still have no idea what it's about._

Kate looked at Castle and did her best not to frown at him. It was a good theory, unlikely, but a good explanation to why he would still be alive. "Or maybe, he's just, I don't know," she said shrugging her shoulders. "Dead."

Rick shook his head. "Beckett, his DNA appeared at a fresh crime scene, there is no way he isn't alive."

Kate shook her head. She knew how it looked, like he had to be alive, but didn't that death certificate account for anything? If it wasn't him who died, then whose body did they bury? Even still, with all the evidence pointing to the fact that he was alive, she could not believe she was going to do this. "Esposito, get an A.P.B. out for someone matching Marilli's description."

Javier felt his expression melt into one of slight surprise. He knew better to believe that Beckett would be wasting police resources if she truly thought he was dead. "You saying he's alive, boss?"

Kate pushed her lips together as she shook her head. "I'm saying, there is a chance that he did indeed fake his own death," with her admittance she saw a satisfied smile cross Castle's face. "However, I do not think it was because he and his lover wanted to run away to live happily ever after," she finished and looked at Castle and raised her eyebrows. "Also, get me the current contact information on his wife."

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when Kate Beckett pulled up in front of Sharon Reynolds', formally known as Sharon Marilli, home. She took in a deep breath and gazed upon the house that she had not seen in five years. She was glad, though, that this time she would not be delivering life debilitating news. As she exhaled she put the car in park and turned it off before getting out and making her way up the driveway.

Beckett was halfway up the driveway before Rick caught up to her. As he fell in step with her stride he looked her in the face. "Bringing up the painful past of a family who has moved on is stressful. I can see why you're nervous."

Kate looked at Castle surprised as he broke her out of her stream of memory. As she processed what he said the surprised look that crossed her face now melted into a frown. "I'm not nervous," she responded defensively.

Rick cocked an eyebrow at her. She was lying, she had to be. If it were him he'd be shaking in his two hundred dollar leather shoes from the nerves. "You look nervous."

Why should she be nervous? It wasn't as if she had taken the man of the house away in handcuffs or destroyed the family with a murder charge. "Well, I'm not," Kate said defiantly as she looked Castle in his blue eyes.

Rick looked down at the woman in front of him. If he hadn't been positive before that she was lying, then her defensiveness confirmed it. He opened his mouth to argue further but stopped and closed it. Whether she was going to admit it or not, this was not the time or place to be arguing about it. "Okay, but if you were, you know you can tell me right? I won't think any less of you."

Kate felt the familiar feeling of a smile hiding behind her lips. However, all she let out was a smirk. "Why Castle, so you can comfort me?" she asked raising her eyebrows at him before side stepping him and continuing on to the front door.

Rick stared after her in somewhat awe as he watched her walk up the driveway. He smiled to himself as he answered, "Well, yeah."

Kate Beckett heard the doorbell ring throughout the house as she pulled her finger away from it and waited. The nerves that she lied to Castle about not having were invading her stomach something fierce. What if they didn't remember her? What if they did? Did they blame her for destroying their family? It hadn't been her fault, Marilli killed a woman and he needed to be brought to justice before he killed again.

As the door opened an artificially blonde girl clad in sweat pants stood in its wake and glanced up from her pink flower covered cell phone with a look of annoyance. As she took in her visitors her annoyance melted into unbridled surprise in her crystal eyes. "Detective," Camille said, recognizing Beckett the instant she laid eyes on her.

Kate smiled down at the girl in the friendliest way she could, trying to tell her through her eyes that she came baring no detrimental news. "Hello Camille, is your mother here?"

At the detective's words the surprise in the teenager's eyes melted into an anger so deep it dimmed her bright eyes to a shade of gray. "What do you need her for?" she asked hostilely as she stood in the doorway and folded her arms.

Kate sighed inwardly and resisted closing her eyes. She knew that this visit was going to end up like this. "That's a private matter between her and me," she said as she stared down the fifteen year old.

However, Camille was not intimidated by the stare that frightened some grown men. Instead her eyes drifted over to Castle and took him in. "Oh, then I suppose he is going to wait outside then?" she said jutting her head toward Castle.

Kate turned her head to take in the man standing next to her. If only the teenager knew how often she had wished that she could leave him behind. "No. He is my partner, he comes with me."

Camille raised her eyebrows in surprise as she again looked Castle up and down. "He's your partner? Really?" she shook her head defiantly. "He doesn't look like cop."

Frustration built its way inside Rick's chest as he glared at the blonde teenager without blinking. This girl was not much younger than Alexis, how was it she was such a good kid when this girl was such a brat? "Are you going to allow us to see your mother or not?"

At Castle's words Camille moved her eyes to his face. He was trying her patience, both of them were. Why couldn't they both just leave her family be to try to sew back together the scraps of their life, which still remained? "Tell me what it regards and I'll allow you in and to talk to her," she bargained as she folded her arms over her chest.

Kate sighed. As much as she would have liked to shelter the girls from the investigation five years ago and the current one that was taking place she knew it was a losing battle. "Your father."

For a brief flash of a moment sadness crossed over Camille's face, however as fast as it came it was gone again, and back in place was the hardened expression of a rebellious teenager. "My father's dead."

"What is this about, Detective?" Sharon Reynolds asked as she took a seat across the kitchen table from Castle and Beckett. She had been dreading the answer to that very question from the minute that she and her partner entered the kitchen.

Kate opened her mouth not even beginning to know how to answer her question. As she thought about her answer, her mind argued to forget the past, she had questions to ask and an investigation to solve.

Rick looked at Beckett waiting for her to answer. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, he knew this had to be hard for her to answer, if it wasn't they wouldn't be approaching thirty seconds of awkward silence. "It's about your former husband, Victor Marilli," he said not being able to bare watching Beckett struggle.

Sharon looked at the author with alarm. _Victor? They were here about Victor? Did they not know that he died in prison near three months ago?_ "I'm sorry to tell you this detective but…"

Kate nodded her head as the woman spoke in her guarded tones. Probably the same way she spoke to everyone every time the subject of her ex-husband came up. "I know, he's dead. But that leads me to my other question. In his file, you were listed as next of kin, if something were to happen to him."

Sharon scoffed at the detective's words. Of course she was listed as next of kin, she was his wife, they weren't very well going to call his mother. "Yes, I'm aware of this."

"So you identified his body when he was brought to the morgue after he died?"

Sharon looked at the detective through her eyelashes. Why was it so necessary to rehash all these painful memories? "No," she said and paused for a moment. "The first, last, and only time I saw my husband after he was put behind bars was his first day at Riker's. I told him I hated him for what he did to us-to us and to our family- and that he destroyed everything by not being able to contain himself and that he needed to remember my face because he was never going to look upon it again, and nor I his."

Rick frowned at the recollection of events that Sharon had just divulged to them. "Just out of curiosity, Mrs. Reynolds, if you swore to him that you were never going to look upon his face again, then tell me, who identified him at the morgue?"

Sharon rolled her eyes. Hadn't they wasted enough of her time with pointless questions for today? "His brother," she answered with pursed lips.

At her answer Kate felt her jaw drop open. Throughout the entire investigation five years ago, there was not a single mention of him having a brother. "He has a brother?" she said shock coloring her tone.

"Yes, Vincent, they're twins," she said and rose from the table. "Now detective, if that is all your questions, I need to get back to preparing dinner for my husband."

Kate nodded as she and Castle both rose out of their chairs. "Just one more question if you don't mind Mrs. Reynolds," she paused as she waited for Sharon's conformation. With a head nod she looked at the woman. "Where can I find him?"

Sharon sighed as she looked at the clock on above the stove before looking back to the detective. "Last place I know of, he lived in East Harlem."

Rick looked at Beckett as she stood against the wall of the elevator beside him. She had barely said two words since they had left the Reynolds' home and Rick knew it was a result of how the family had treated her. He couldn't understand why what they thought of her matter so much. "Tough crowd" he said breaking the silence as he looked upon the solemn expression she wore on her face.

Kate looked at Castle expressionless for a moment. "Yeah, well they've been through a lot Castle," she said and she looked straight and forced the family Marilli left behind from her mind.

Rick looked at Beckett as she stared into her reflection in the elevator doors. The solemness he knew she was still inwardly wrestling was no longer portrayed on her face. "Are you okay?"

Kate looked at Castle surprised. She didn't know why it surprised her every time he was sincere but it did. "Yeah, Castle, I'm fine," she said as the elevator bell dinged signaling that they had reached the homicide floor.

Javier looked up as he saw the elevator doors open out of the corner of his eye. He was both anxious and regretting Beckett and Castle's return to the precinct. As he saw them approaching the desk he stood up to full height and called out, "Hey Beckett, there…"

"Esposito I need you and Ryan to get me the address, workplace, and anything else you can find on Vincent Marilli. He's Mari-"

At Beckett's words Javier looked at Beckett both shocked and relieved. She already knew what he was going to tell her. "Marilli's twin," he finished for her. "I know; Ryan is running down his location right now," he said jerking his head to the back to where Ryan was sitting in front of a computer. "How did you find out about him?"

Kate looked at Esposito with unbridled surprise in her hazel eyes. "Marilli's ex-wife, Sharon. She told us that he identified him at the morgue."

"Ah!" Kevin announced as Vincent Marilli's address appeared on the screen in front of his eyes. He quickly jotted it down before jogging over to Esposito's desk. "We found him," he said as he handed the piece of paper to Beckett.

Kate looked down at the paper that Ryan had just handed her. _284 East 111__th__ street apartment 12-F._Sharon had been right, Vincent did still live in Harlem. She looked up at Ryan. "Good work, let's go pick him up."


End file.
